N Chandrababu Naidu tries to instil confidence
He sounded confident that the party activists and the people would serve as a shield to safeguard the TD from being pushed into a crisis.
Vijayawada: Telugu Desam president and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu flayed the four MPs of his who switched loyalty to the BJP and sought merger with the BJP. He warned them that they would repent for their act soon.
The TD chief held a tele-conference with party leaders from Europe where he is on vacation with his family, and castigated the four Rajya Sabha members for supporting the BJP which subjected AP to injustice by not according Special Category Status.
Referring to the statements of the four MPs that they took the decision to support the BJP for the development of AP, he said they were practising “opportunistic politics”. He criticised the BJP for playing mind games to lure his party leaders into its fold.
Maintaining that TD witnessed several ups and downs in its 37 years, he said that no loss would come to the TD even if four MPs deserted it and added that there were lakhs of party activists to sustain the party.
He sounded confident that the party activists and the people would serve as a shield to safeguard the TD from being pushed into a crisis. Mr Naidu appealed to the party supporters to stand firm to political and physical attacks on them.
In a related development, TD MLC Budha Venkanna described the act of the four TD MPs switching loyalty to the BJP as shameful and blamed them for doing so at a time when the party was in crisis after faring poorly in the recent polls.
Though speculation was rife that Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas alias Nani was also going to switch loyalty to the BJP, he joined the media conference with TD leaders and condemned the four MPs.