HYDERABAD: The storm created in Telangana TDP by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s presence at the wedding of the son of Andhra Pradesh minister Paritala Sunitha in Anantapur district recently, appears to be “raging”. Rao’s presence at the wedding of Sunitha’s son and his subsequent confabulations with TDP MLC Payyavula Keshav, a close aide of AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, led to emergence of a new proposal for an alliance between the two parties in the 2019 general election.
Irked by this development, Revanth Reddy, a vociferous critic of KCR, is understood to be exploring his “political options”.
According to sources, some senior TTDP leaders are in favour of a tie-up with TRS in order to improve the party’s strength in the Assembly. In return, the TDP could help the TRS win the trust and votes of Andhra settlers. R & B minister Thummala Nageswara Rao, who was earlier with TDP, and other leaders came up with this proposal. As the Congress is making all-out efforts to form a grand alliance with all opposition parties against the TRS, KCR is said to be ready to play the game since a TRS-TDP tie-up will spoil the Congress’ plan of uniting all opposition parties.
As for TTDP, some senior leaders such as Mothkupalli Narsimhulu are openly backing this proposal but leaders belonging to the Reddy community, led by Revanth Reddy, are opposed to having any truck with TRS. Sources said Revanth Reddy told Chandrababu Naidu that such a proposal would be suicidal for the TDP in Telangana as the “TRS will further eat into TDP’s vote bank.”
At Sunday meeting held by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with TTDP leaders here, Revanth told his party boss that if the Congress and TDP joined hands, they can easily defeat the TRS, given their combined vote share. It is learnt that Naidu had not given any assurance to Revanth that TDP would not join hands with TRS in the polls. “We will talk about alliances only when elections are announced. For now, all of you concentrate on strengthening the party at the grass roots level,” Naidu told the TDP leaders.
Ready for talks with TDP: Thummala
Even as Revanth’s group is angry at the proposal of joining hands with TRS, R& B minister Thummala Nageswara Rao on Thursday openly expressed his willingness to hold negotiations with the TDP leadership. “If my party leadership gives green signal, I am ready to hold talks with TDP,” Rao said.