N Chandrababu Naidu using Telangana polls to clear path for son in AP

Hyderabad: TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s surprise fielding of his niece Nandamuri Suhasini from the Kukatpally Assembly seat appears to be part of a plan to politically settle the Nandamuri and Nara families.

According to party sources, Mr Naidu, who utilises every opportunity to push his political strategy, intends to let the Nandamuri family lead the Telugu Desam in Telangana state and keep Andhra Pradesh with the Nara family.

With this, Mr Naidu wants to make way for his son, minister Nara Lokesh, as his political successor in AP without any hurdles from the Nandamuri family. 

The late Nandamuri Harikrishna, Ms Suhasini’s father, was not on good terms with Mr Naidu. Harikrishna’s sons Jr NTR and Nandamuri Kalyan Ram are following in the footsteps of their father. After the death of Harikrishna, Mr Naidu tried to give the impression that the Nandamuri family was with him. 

Social media platforms saw several posts that Jr NTR and Kalyan Ram were not interested in Ms Suhasini entering politics. Officially both greeted their sister after she filed her nomination papers. If Jr NTR campaigns for his sister at Kukatpally, Mr Naidu will claim that the actor is not against to him. 

There is speculation in political circles that the Nandamuri family is not happy with Mr Naidu promoting Mr Lokesh. After Mr Naidu shifted to Amaravati, he stopped concentrating on the TS Telugu Desam and confined himself to AP. The TD was stronger in Telangana than in Seemandhra during the undivided Andhra Pradesh days.

TS Telugu Desam leaders said they have destroyed the party with their own hands. They requested Mr Naidu several times to appoint Jr NTR or Ms Nara Brahmini, the wife of Mr Lokesh, to lead the party unit. But Mr Naidu has rejected their request every time. TS TD leaders said the party still has strong cadre in some districts. If there is a strong leader to lead the party, it will pick up.

Mr Naidu wants to give the impression that he is not ignoring the Nandamuri family with the selection of Ms Suhasini. He wants to give the impression to the public that the Nandamuri family is backing him.

In some quarters, there is a demand that the Telugu Desam leadership be handed over to the Nandamuri family. Against this background, Mr Naidu wants to hand over the responsibility of Telangana TD to the Nandamuri family. With this it is expected that the Nandamuri family will confine itself to Telangana and the Nara family can lead the party in AP. 

TD sources said that if the Prajakutami comes to power Ms Suhasini may be inducted into the Cabinet to balance Mr Lokesh who is in the AP Cabinet.