More than nearly 18 years after his death, Telugu Desam Party founder and thespian of Telugu films NT Rama Rao will have his statue at Parliament in New Delhi. The statue will be unveiled by Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday in the presence of political leaders cutting across the party lines.
Vying with each other to be in the limelight will be two rival groups of the NTR clan — his daughter and a Minister in the Congress Government D Purandeswari and Telugu Desam Party president and NTR’s son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu. NTR’s two sons — film star N Balakrishna, N Harikrishna — and grandson Junior NTR will also be present on the occasion.
However, NTR’s second wife lakshmi Parvathy will be conspicuous by her absence as she was not invited by the lok Sabha Secretariat. A seething lakshmi Parvathy has threatened to take legal action against the Speaker as well as Purandeswari.
In Hyderabad, she told the media that Purandeswari was responsible for denying her the invitation. “This is a grave insult. How the Speaker can fail to recognise me as wife of NTR”, she asked.
But this will not be the only row casting shadow over the ceremony. Even TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu got the official invitation after the party MPs met Speaker Meira Kumar and lodged a strong protest. They wanted to know why Chandrababu Naidu was not invited. The delegation was led by TD Parliamentary party leader Nama Nageshwara Rao.
later in the day, Naidu received a call from the Speaker inviting him to the function. This was being seen as a setback for Purandeswari who wanted to keep the political rival out of the ceremony as he holds Naidu responsible for leading a revolt against NTR in 1995 and forcing him out of power as well party leadership.
Naidu will be flying to New Delhi on Tuesday morning and attend the ceremony in the company of MPs and former MPs of his party.
However, it remains to be seen whether UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will attend the function as she was under pressure from the Congress MPs of Andhra Pradesh to stay away. They met Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday to request her not to attend as NTR was staunch anti-Congress leader who fought against the party. Kavuri Samba Siva Rao, A Venkat Rami Reddy and Sai Pratap were among the MPs who met Sonia Gandhi.
It may be recalled here that after ruling Telugu cinema as a king for almost five decades, NTR had made a foray into politics by launching regional Telugu Desam Party in 1982 and stormed to power within nine months by defeating the Congress party led by Indira Gandhi.
After ruling the State for nine years and also tasting defeats, NTR died in political wilderness as his son-in-law along with many other families led a revolt against him in 1995 as NTR was promoting his second wife lakshmi Parvathy as political heir. NTR had married his biographer in 1993, several years after his first wife Basava Tarakam died of cancer. She had bore him nine children.