HYDERABAD: A day after he had dropped enough hints of the possibility of the TDP joining hands with the ruling TRS in the State by the next general election, yellow party supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday directed his party leaders in Telangana to organise three public meetings across the State before the party’s annual conclave, Mahanadu, in Hyderabad on May 28.
“The first public meeting will be held in Khammam district where the TDP is very strong. Our boss Naidu will attend it. The venues of the other two meetings will be decided soon,” Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, MLA from Khammam district, told mediapersons here on Thursday. The party will hold Mahanadu on May 28, the birth anniversary of party founder NT Rama Rao, in Hyderabad by mobilising more than one lakh people to show its strength. Earlier, Naidu interacted with party leaders from Telangana at his residence here for the second consecutive day.
According to sources, he once again indicated the possibility of his party joining hands with the ruling party in Telangana for the next elections. “Since the BJP is not inclined to ally with us, the TDP has the option of joining hands only with either of the two remaining major parties. As one party (Congress) had done grave injustice to AP during bifurcation, we are left with only the other party,” he was quoted as saying.
“Our party supremo told us that electoral alliances would be forged depending on the political developments at the time of polls and asked us to concentrate on strengthening the party at the grass roots level till then,” party leader E Peddi Reddy said soon after the meeting. According to party leaders, Naidu asked them to put in efforts to reactive the party cadres in all Assembly constituencies as there is a possibility of the central government holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies by next November or December. “TDP is still a strong force in many Assembly constituencies. Leaders might have deserted our party in some areas but the cadre is intact,”he said.