Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s grouse was that the Congress-led UPA government had taken the initiative to divide Andhra Pradesh to finish him off politically.
Although the bifurcation actually hit him hard in Telangana, with scores of MLAs and leaders joining the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, it seems the TDP, at the same time, is curiously rising from the ashes in Seemandhra. It was much behind the YSR Congress in the region till a few months ago.
Andhra Pradesh will be voting for the assembly and Lok Sabha simultaneously on April 30 and May 7.
Naidu, the longest serving chief minister of two terms, now has to confine himself to Seemandhra if he is to become chief minister again. And for that, he is banking heavily on the disgruntled Congress men.
After the passage of the Telangana Bill, two ministers of the Kiran Kumar Reddy government, which is in dissolution now following the President’s rule — TG Venkatesh, Erasu Prathap Reddy — have joined the TDP.
Another former Congress minister, Ghanta Srinivasa Rao, will join the TDP with five Congress MLAs on March 12 at a rally in Visakhapatnam.