Chandrababu Naidu tells party workers to regain its past glory in Telangana

Hyderabad: Refraining from criticising on the TRS government and his TS counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao, TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu asked the party to work to regain its past glory in the state.

Stepping into the TD headquarters, NTR Bhavan after nine months, Mr Naidu participated in the TS TD general body meeting amidst much fanfare on Sunday.
Mr Naidu told the meeting that the BJP was a cadre-based party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its leader had achieved the “impossible” of absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, a record for a non-Congress party.

He said he was witnessing gloomy faces in the party unit here, and said though he wished to be in TS and lead the party to victory, it was not possible as he was Chief Minister of AP. He promised to allot at least a day in a month for the TS unit.

Leaders who spoke before Mr Naidu, such as TS TD president L. Ramana, working pre-sident A. Revanth Reddy, politburo member M. Narasimhulu and membership drive incharge E. Peddireddy bitterly criticised the TRS government. They said the government had not keep its poll promises and only concentrating on making wealth and leading a life of luxury.

There was a wide applause for Mr Revanth Reddy who during his 25-minute address criticised the TS CM with choicest abuses. Mr Narasimhulu took a dig at the party state leadership for not taking along wea-ker sections and appe-aled to Mr Naidu that he personally interact with the deprived sections when they visits Vijayawada to meet him.

Cash crash? Telangana TD has 1.76 lakh members
The demonetisation of high-value currency notes has impacted the TD’s biennial membership drive. The party had targeted one crore members in AP and TS. TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu acknowledged this at the party’s general body meeting here.

Mr E. Peddireddy, TS TD membership drive incharge, said 1.76 lakh members had enrolled against the target of 15 lakh so far. The deadline is November 30.

Later Mr Naidu, reading out details from his iPad, said the party had enrolled only 23 lakh members in both states, and said that demonetisation had impac-ted the party drive. He said the membership could reach 33 lakh by November 30, and the leadership would take a decision on extending the deadline for few more days.

He said the party had registered 54 lakh party members in 55 days, a record and wanted concerted efforts to improve membership. He said the TD had for the first time in India had introduced insurance along with membership. Each active member would have to pay '100, and all details would be digitised.