Even as Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu shared dais with Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday, amid the indications that he was likely to have a tie-up with the BJP, the minority leaders of the TDP were up in arms against such a move.
In a repeat of 1998, when the most renowned Muslim face of the TDP and a senior Minister in the Chandrababu Cabinet Basheeruddin Babu Khan had resigned in protest against the party’s support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, another prominent Muslim leader of the party Zahid Ali Khan told Naidu that he will never accept the TDP joining hands with any communal party.
Zahid Ali Khan along with member of legislative Council Mohammed Saleem and Ibrahim Bin Abdullah Masqati, former MlC met Naidu before he left for New Delhi and told him that any indication of the TDP supporting Modi will turn the Muslims against the TDP.
But Naidu apparently told the minorities leaders that it was too early to talk of any alliance. At the same time he said alliances will be formed on anti-Congress plank.
later addressing a public meeting in protest against Muzaffarnagar riots, Zahid Ali Khan declared that he will be the first to quit the TDP if Naidu joins hands with the BJP. “Chandrababu Naidu will have to pay a very heavy price for friendship with the BJP. If he takes even one step towards the BJP, I will quit the party”.
Zahid Ali Khan who is editor and publisher of a leading Urdu daily Siasat and enjoys a good reputation for social service, said that he had joined the TDP as he hoped that the party would work for the uplift and welfare of the minorities. “I had decided to work with Naidu because of his secular image. But now if it tilts even slightly it will be seen as his support for Modi. In such a situation as a Muslim distancing myself from the TDP will be my first and foremost duty. I will do whatever is necessary in the interest of Muslims,” he said.
He recalled that he was not in the TDP when it had extended support to the NDA in the past and then Minister Basheeruddin Babu Khan had resigned from the Cabinet.
Zahid Ali Khan’s departure will be a big blow for the TDP. He had contested from Hyderabad lok Sabha constituency against MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi in 2009 polls and was largely expected to again contest from the same constituency.
After the demise of TDP vice president and former MP lal Jan Basha in a road accident recently, the TDP does not have any other credible minority face.