Hyderabad, August 03: Former home minister T Devender Goud will re-join Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on August 6 or 11. Goud, who has already made up his mind, will formally meet his followers at his residence in Banjara Hills at 3:00 pm, sources said.
Meanwhile, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu called Goud today and said he should return without the slightest inhibition. The message assumes significance in light of the fact that some TDP leaders have said that Goud not be trusted with important posts.
Goud, who was No 2 in the TDP, had left the party on the Telangana issue. Though Naidu had made him a member of the five-member committee on Telangana, Goud quit the party well before the committee took a pro-Telangana stand.
He went on to start his own outfit, the Nava Telangana Party, last year, only to merge it, in the wake of poor response, with Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).
Following the latter’s severe drubbing in the recent elections, particularly in the Telangana region, Goud had for the last one month been weighing his options.
After a series of deliberations with Naidu, he has finally made up his mind. Joining the TDP along with Goud will be former minister E Peddi Reddy, also a founder-member of the NTP. According to sources, Goud and Naidu will embark on the task of enticing back other TDP leaders who joined PRP and failed to make it to the Assembly.
The aim is to show that the TDP is regaining strength even as the PRP is weakening.
–Agencies–