Hyderabad, March 24: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday said the outcome of the Legislative Council election from Local Authorities Constituencies show that the party would gain from the division in the Congress ranks brought about by the former Kadapa MP, Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s group.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Naidu, who was in an upbeat mood after the election results, said he expected the trend to continue and the party would be in an advantageous position as unlike Praja Rajyam party, Mr. Jagan would split the Congress vote more. He said the party got a bonus by winning two more MLCs from LAC quota than it had expected.
But he did not rule out the possibility of Mr. Jagan ultimately going PRP way by merging his party with the Congress. The narrow victory margin of Mr. Jagan’s group candidate in Kadapa shows that the battle there was not one- sided anymore, he added.
To a related question, he said he had seen media reports about TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao’s plans to join Congress. In fact if both Mr. Jagan’s party and TRS joins Congress, it would benefit the TDP much more, he added.
Making the point that the party’s base had not eroded in Telangana as indicated by its performance in 2009 Assembly elections, he said it was because of TRS, which barely managed to win a few of the 75 seats it was allotted that TDP could not return to power. Leaders, cadre and voters have remained with TDP.
Expressing dismay over the large amounts of money that flowed in the MLC elections with a MPTC in Kadapa commanding a price of Rs. 10 lakhs, he called for nomination of MLCs in proportion to the strength of the political parties or following open ballot system as in Rajya Sabha elections.
Mr. Naidu made it clear that the party would continue to stall the proceedings of the House till the government was concedes their demand for Joint Legislature Committee to inquire into all land allotments made to IT companies, Special Economic Zones and other projects.
He said the nomination to the chairmanship of Public Accounts Committee would be decided after a discussion in the party.
-Agencies