HYDERABAD: The fight for claim to the legacy of TDP founder and former chief minister NT Rama Rao, being laid by his daughter and Union Human Resource Minister Daggubati Purandareswari and the Telugu Desam led by NTR’s son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu, has now reached Parliament.
The Telugu Desam had decided to urge the Lok Sabha Speaker not to entertain Purandareswari’s request but stick to the earlier decision taken by the Portraits Committee of Parliament to install the statue of NT Rama Rao to be sponsored by the TDP. Purandareswari has recently urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to allow her to sponsor the statue.
TDP leaders feel that Purandareswari has become an impediment to installation of the great leader’s statue in the Parliament Hall.
``Purandareswari has joined the Congress and is enjoying power at the Centre. It is not right on her part to obstruct the process,’’ TDP leader K Yerran Naidu, who was a member of the Portraits Committee member for nine years, told Express.
He said that the proposal came before Parliament when GMC Balayogi was the Lok Sabha speaker. ``I was a member of the Portraits Committee.
The TDP had wanted to sponsor two statues, one of Alluri Sitarama Raju and the other of NTR, to be installed in Parliament.
The Portraits Committee under the chairmanship of Somnath Chetterjee approved it,’’ Yerran Naidu said. “The architect of Parliament approved the miniatures of the statues and suggested minor changes.
He even wanted to visit Kottapet, where 9-ft-tall statues of Alluri and NTR were being made. In the mean time, the Lok Sabha was dissolved,’’ Yerran Naidu said and charged Purandareswari with raking up an unnecessary issue.
“True, NTR was her father. But he was a god to all TDP workers,’’ Naidu said and appealed to Purandareswari not to make the project controversial but keep the image of NTR high.
The TDP engaged Rajkumar Vadiar, a sculptor at Kottapet in East Godavari district, and even paid him some advance money. Vadiar told Express that once Parliament gave its nod, it would take four to five months for him to make the bronze statues of Alluri and NTR.