HYDERABAD: AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to be counselling Telangana TDP leader and legislator Errabelli Dayakar Rao against joining TRS.
Having lost Khammam district leader Tummala Nageswara Rao, Naidu, who wants the TDP to come to power in Telangana in the next elections, cannot afford to lose one more senior leader to KCR. This is the reason why he is trying to make Dayakar Rao see reason in staying with the TDP.
There were reports that Dayakar Rao was planning to do a Tummala after he met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao secretly on late Sunday night. But Dayakar Rao denied meeting KCR, but on Tuesday admitted meeting the chief minister but not as was being made out. He said he met him along with a few of his friends to discuss certain issues with the CM on Sunday evening but not in the middle of the night.
Dayakar Rao made it clear that he would sail with TDP and that he had made this clear several times. “I will stay with TDP. I have said this before and I am saying it now”, he asserted.
According to sources, Dayakar Rao was trying to show TDP leader A Revanth Reddy’s outburst at KCR and a realtor J Rameswara Rao as an excuse to leave the TDP.
Dayakar Rao admitted he differed with Revanth Reddy on allotment of land to Rameswar Rao who is considered to be close to Dayakar Rao.
Revanth Reddy had attacked KCR saying that the land meant for Hyderabad Metro Rail had been allotted to Rameshwar Rao. Taking a strong exception to Revanth Reddy’s attack on Rameshwar, Dayakar Rao is reported to have decided to bid goodbye to TDP as it was becoming increasingly suffocating for him there.
According to sources, Chandrababu Naidu was not very happy with Dayakar Rao not coming down heavily on KCR of late though he had asked him several times to step up the attack and thus retrieve TDP’s lost ground. He is understood to have told the Telangana leaders that time was appropriate to launch attack on KCR and TRS as it was the only way to build the party where it had been weakened by the TRS.
But Dayakar Rao has not been taking the advice sincerely and when Naidu began promoting Revanth Reddy in the party, the latter became aggressive and attacked KCR and Rameswara Rao despite the fact that the latter was close to Dayakar Rao.
Dayakar Rao said: “I don’t mind Revanth Reddy attacking KCR or Rameswara Rao. But he was targeting their community.” Dayakar Rao belongs to the same community to which KCR and Rameswara Rao belong - Velama.
After Dayakar Rao met KCR, there was speculation that he would soon be joining the TRS and that he would even be taken into the State cabinet because he would be a prize catch for KCR. By giving importance to him, KCR intends to deal a blow to the morale of the TDP in Telangana, a TDP leader said.