HYDERABAD: For the first time, Telugu Desam Party, founded by NT Rama Rao in 1982, is skipping general elections for the Lok Sabha in Telangana. Worse still, it is facing the prospect of not being able to move up in becoming a national party, at least in the near future.
After Telangana was carved out of AP in 2014, the TDP hoped to become a national party as it would be operating in both the States despite its rout in the youngest State. The revised guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI) lay down that for a party to get national party status, it should get 6 per cent of valid votes in the Assembly or Lok Sabha polls in a minimum of four States and four MPs from any State or 2 per cent of Lok Sabha seats (11 MPs) from three or more States, or it should be a party in four States.
The TDP, in the present circumstances, will find it hard to fulfil any of the criteria that had been set by the ECI after an amendment to relevant rules in 2016. This is because the TDP is now limited to AP. In other words, the TDP’s journey, instead of going forward, is now in the reverse direction.
In Telangana, the TDP stands at the crossroads after its humiliating defeat in the recent Assembly elections, where it contested 13 seats and won only two. Of the two, Sandra Vekata Veeraiah of Sattupalli defected to the TRS. The last man standing in the TDP is Mecha Nageswara Rao of Aswaraopet.
“We have not yet decided whether to contest or not, and if we do, for how many seats,” TDP State president L Ramana told TNIE. He, however, said that the TDP has pledged its support to TPCC working president A Revanth Reddy in Malkajgiri and Congress nominee Renuka Chowdary in Khammam as the party has an alliance with the grand old party. “We will take a call tomorrow (the last date for filing of nominations) on TDP contesting the LS polls,” Ramana said on Sunday. The mood in the party does not indicate any decision in favour of contesting the elections though it had earlier received some applications for allotment of tickets for contesting the polls for a few seats, which included Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, Mahabubabad and Khammam. Of them, the party has now decided to support the Congress nominees in Malkajgiri and Khammam.
In 2014, the TDP won only one Lok Sabha seat Malkajgiri and the MP Ch Malla Reddy subsequently joined the TRS. The TDP has more or less taken the decision to keep away from Lok Sabha elections in Telangana as it apparently is afraid that it may result in a repeat of the outcome of Assembly polls held in December. “If we contest in Telangana, we may inadvertently let the advantage slip into the TRS’ hands,” a source in TDP said, implying that if the TDP is in the fray, the TRS may incite Telangana passions once again and benefit from it.