Hyderabad, June 26: The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), groping in the dark to recover from poll drubbing, today began damage control exercise to mollify Former Minister T Srinivas Yadav who attributed the election debacle to the TDP alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti(TRS) and support for creation of separate Telangana State.
Realising Mr Yadav’s exit at a time when the party was to face civic polls in the state capital would cause harm, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu had a one-to-one meeting with him this morning and discussed the issue raised by him outside the party for ”violating party discipline.” The party chief responded ”positively” to the issue raised by him during the parleys, Mr Yadav told newspersons.
”I have not set any deadline for the party to reverse its stand on the Telangana issue,” he clarified.
Amid speculation he might cross over to the ruling Congress, Mr Yadav told a media conference yesterday the party would be routed in the coming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Elections if it did not reverse its stand on separate Telangana State and support unified Andhra Pradesh.
”People want development and not separate Telangana,” stated Mr Yadav who lost to Actor Jayasudha of the Congress in the Secunderabad Assembly Seat which he had won in the May 2008 By-election before the party reversed its decision in support of Telangana. Mr Yadav had come out in the open, days after TDP MLA N Prasanna Kumar Reddy raised the banner of revolt asking Mr Naidu to hand over the Party Presidentship to Party Founder N T Rama Rao’s son and Star Campaigner Balakrishna, forcing the TDP to place him under suspension.
—–Agencies