Andhra Pradesh and Telangana politics is set to witness a major change as bitter rivals TDP and Congress are inching closer towards a tie-up. Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu set up a five-member committee on Sunday to explore the options. The committee will be headed by State TDP president L Ramanna.
Naidu spent second busy day in Hyderabad and held discussions with the Telangana TDP leaders. Apart from the issue of alliance with the Congress in Telangana Assembly elections, the meeting also discussed how many and which Assembly seats the party should contest.
Naidu also constituted a 10-member committee headed by senior leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy to prepare a manifesto and also a campaign committee.
Naidu, who arrived here on Saturday, has publicly not committed himself to alliance with any party. Addressing the State executive committee of the TDP on Saturday evening, he said it is a State issue and the State unit will take a call on the issue of alliance.
But party sources said Naidu has given his nod to the idea of alliance with the Congress to effectively counter the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and left the nitty-gritty to the State leaders to give a message that the alliance will be confined to Telangana.
“I leave it to the party leaders here to take a collective decision on the issue keeping in mind the best interest of the party and the State,” he said assuring his full cooperation.
Significantly in his address to the State executive, the BJP and NDA were the main butt of his attacks and did not target the ruling TRS. He alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to create a rift between him and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao by his remarks during the debate in Parliament on the no-confidence motion.
Naidu was under pressure from the party leaders in Andhra Pradesh not to tie up with the Congress as it may harm the party’s interest given the public perception that the Congress was responsible for the bifurcation of the State.
Meanwhile, Andhra Deputy Chief Minister N Chinnarajappa said the decision of alliance with the Congress had nothing to do with Andhra Pradesh and the decision will be taken by Telangana leaders keeping in view the local circumstances.
The TDP, formed in 1982 by reigning superstar of Telugu films NT Rama Rao on the plank of regionalism, Telugu pride and anti-Congressism, is presently in power in truncated Andhra Pradesh while in Telangana it was third major party with 14.7 per cent popular vote it polled in 2014.