VIJAYAWADA: 2020 is considered to be a very challenging year for the TDP. After facing its worst debacle in the 2019 elections, four out of the 23 party MLAs have extended support to the YSRC government, hitting the morale of the party leaders and cadre hard. Though speculation was rife at one point of time that party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu may lose the Leader of the Opposition status with some more MLAs keeping a distance from the party, it did not happen in 2020. The key challenge of the party now is to keep its flock together.
In 2020, the party has organised many protests against the government demanding continuation of Amaravati as the sole capital of AP, written a series of letters to the Chief Minister and DGP decrying the law and order situation and faulting the government on attacks on temples, and party supremo minced no words in attacking the government to inject a fresh dose of adrenaline to the dejected cadre. But, it seems, the efforts yielded not much result because of the pandemic.With Naidu confined to video conferences, party general secretary Nara Lokesh took the lead in making field visits in various districts.
Now, the ensuing Tirupati by-election will be a litmus test for the TDP. As YSRC is going ahead with implementation of the welfare schemes and the BJP is pulling socks to emerge as an alternative force along with the Jana Sena, the performance in the bypoll is crucial for the yellow party. TDP AP president Kinjarapu Atchhannaidu told TNIE that the failures of the government forced them to hit the roads. “We are conducting the meetings of politburo, national committee and state committee in the first week of January to discuss the failures of the YSRC government and to devise an action plan for party’s way ahead,’’ he said.