HYDERABAD: January 9 was a red letter day in the history of Telugu Desam party as its founder NT Rama Rao was sworn in as chief minister for the first time on that day in 1983.
The party celebrated the day during its extended state committee meeting here on Monday. Laddus were distributed to committee leaders at lunch time.
In his inaugural speech, party president N Chandrababu Naidu recalled those days and said he was confident that the TDP would bounce back to power in 2014. To achieve the goal, Naidu has harked back to NTR's slogan, "self-respect of Telugus", which helped NTR create history by unseating the Congress. The pamphlets distributed to party leaders at the meeting remarked: "The days of Delhi bigwigs dictating terms in Andhra Pradesh are here again. The state Congress leaders have pledged the self-respect of Telugus for the sake of power".
Naidu has already cleared the line for NTR's son Balakrishna to jump into electoral politics. Besides his capabilities and strategies, Naidu is once again depending on the charisma of NTR. He decided to unveil an NTR statue at his native village Nara Vari Palle on January 13.
His differences with Harikrishna seem to have been ironed out as the latter is attending party meetings now. "I have shed 9 kg of weight," Harikrishna said while indicating that he was more active now and raring to work for the party. Asked whether he too would contest the Assembly elections along with his brother Balakrishna, Harikrishna said: "I am prepared to do anything as directed by the party. It is up to the party to entrust work to me."
Naidu wanted the party workers to focus more on the failures of Congress government in the last seven years and also the sagging image of the TRS and YSRC. Recalling his promise at last year's Mahanadu that the party would be strengthened within a year, Naidu said the party had become stronger, especially in the last six months.
The party chief wanted the party leaders to focus more on organisational matters. The party's membership drive will be taken up from January 19 to February 19. The village committee elections will be held from March 20 to 31, mandal committee elections from April 11 to 20 and district committee elections on May 16. The Mahanadu will be held from May 27 to 29. naidu claimed that the Congress was as good as a dead and the TRS' image was sagging while the YSRC was neckdeep in corruption.