Telangana needs TDP, reception better than in AP: Chandrababu

KHAMMAM: Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday felt that Telangana needed the TDP and asked his brethren (Telugu Thammullu) to gear up to rebuild the party in the state.

The TDP chief addressed a mammoth public meeting (Telugu Desam Sankharavam Sabha) at Sardar Patel Stadium in Khammam on Wednesday evening. The meeting assumes significance in the wake of the TRS metamorphosing into the BRS, as a national party, which gave wings to Chandrababu Naidu's hopes to find a foothold again in the state politics.

And predictably, the veteran leader devoted most of his time on how the Telugu Desam Party and himself played a key role in the development of Telangana, especially the state capital Hyderabad. Starting from how the party patriarch N T Rama Rao sowed the welfare seeds to eradicate inequality to how he painstakingly laid the foundation for the all-round development of Hyderabad, Chandrababu Naidu was at pains, explaining to the crowd at the public meeting and to those who watched event live on television that TDP could not be alienated from Telangana and the state still needed his party. In the process, he even surprised everyone with his remark that he was being accorded a warm reception in Telangana, far better than in Andhra Pradesh (Andhra lo kante Telangana lo naku neeraajanaalu paduthunnaru).

Claiming that he thinks like a teenager, he boasted of his capability to predict the future 30 years ahead. Chandrababu Naidu said that he envisioned the future of Information Technology well in advance and strived hard to lay the foundation for the industry to flourish in Hyderabad. He told the turnout of TDP workers as to how he could build the Hitech City in flat 14 months, thanks to his foresight.

From Genome Valley to Bharat Biotech to Indian School of Business and from Outer Ring Road to Shamshabad, he took the name of every institution and monument worth its name and claimed credit for their establishment, stating that they were created because of his pioneering efforts.

Boasting that the TDP had done a lot for Telangana, he asserted that they had every right to seek votes for his party in Telangana.

Chandrababu Naidu also took the opportunity to endear himself more to the Telangana society and raked up the recent reunification comments made by the leaders of the YSRCP in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Aiming at two birds with one shot, he said that some people were raising the bogey of reunification of the two states into a combined Andhra Pradesh. Asserting that the two Telugu states would never merge again, he said that the two states could find themselves in the forefront of development in the country if only they worked in cohesion even after their bifurcation.