CHIRALA (PRAKASAM): A dday after the PRP’s merger with Congress, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu invited his former comrades now in the to-be-defunct party to come back home rather than go to seed in the Congress.
Leading a day-long dharna at the Epurupalem panchayat office in support of weavers, he said: “Some Telugu Desam leaders joined the PRP due to some political reasons. Now, the PRP has merged with the Congress. I invite all of them to come back to the TDP fold.”
Naidu said PRP president Chiranjeevi’s claim of being a champion of social justice has now proved hollow with his joining the Congress. Therefore the PRP was a party "without an ideology or even any morality".
“How can Chiranjeevi repose faith in the Congress, which failed to balance social justice in its own Cabinet,” he wondered. For instance, there was no backward class leader among the seven Union ministers from the state, the TDP president said.
Much of Naidu’s speech gave vent to his pet peeve with Chiranjeevi, for playing the spoiler in the 2009 poll. “The TDP was stopped from coming back to power in the last elections because of the presence of the PRP. Because of Chiranjeevi’s party, Rajasekhara Reddy became chief minister and indulged in corruption. It means Chiranjeevi was indirectly responsible for corruption in the state,” he analysed.
Naidu was unfazed about any damage to the TDP as a result of the merger. In fact, it may do good to the TDP and prove that it was the only alternative to the Congress in the state, he said.