TDP leader raises banner of revolt against party Chief

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh's main Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Thursday received yet another jolt when a senior leader raised a banner of revolt against party Chief N Chandrababu Naidu.

A few days after the TDP suspended one of its legislators for going public with his views criticising the leadership, former minister T Srinivas Yadav addressed a news conference blaming the party's crushing defeat in the recent elections on its support to the demand for a separate Telangana.

Amid speculation that he is joining the ruling Congress party, Yadav urged the party leadership to revert to its original stand of a united Andhra Pradesh.

The former minister, who lost the Assembly elections in the Secunderabad constituency to Congress candidate and actress Jayasudha, did not deny reports that he was planning to join the Congress.

"If I am joining the Congress party, I will inform you," Yadav said.

Yadav said he was addressing the media as airing his views within the party would have served no purpose. He also claimed that he had told Naidu before the polls that reversing the traditional stand on Telangana and joining hands with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti would prove disastrous.

The TDP leader urged Naidu to save the party from similar fate in the coming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation by taking a clear stand against bifurcation of the state.

Yadav's comments came as the TDP began a three-day meeting at its headquarters in the city to review the party's poll performance.

Naidu advised party legislators not to go public with their views on any issue. "If you want to say something, I am ready to listen," he said.

Inaugurating the meeting, Naidu blamed Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and his Congress party for the crisis in the TDP.

The TDP chief alleged that after failing to lure a legislator, the Chief Minister tried to implicate him in false cases. He was referring to the rape and murder charges booked against T V Rama Rao. The allegations against the legislator were later proved false.

The TDP last week suspended its legislator N Prasanna Kumar Reddy for writing a series of letters to Naidu and releasing them to the media.

The legislator had criticised Naidu's style of functioning and blamed him for the party's defeat.

In the recent elections, TDP had won 92 assembly seats in 294-member house. It bagged six out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.