“Chandrababu Naidu first back-stabbed NTR, now betraying TDP principles”

New Delhi, Nov 2: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu hobnobbed with who's who in the opposition during his visit to Delhi yesterday (November 1). Naidu met a slew of Opposition leaders, from Sharad Pawar of the NCP to Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, and finally setting aside differences in the past, he met Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul, after meeting Naidu, said, "We will talk about the present and the future, and not about the past."

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had been extremely upset with the Congress over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh under its rule. After meetinf Rahul, Naidu said TDP had differences with the Congress, but a 'democratic compulsion' has brought them together. The 'democratic compulsion' apparently is to forge an alliance to defeat the BJP. Naidu said "Our mission is to save democracy...We want to unite all non-BJP Opposition parties and chalk out a common programme."

Reactintg to this BJP's Ram Madhav said, "Chandrababu Naidu first back-stabbed and betrayed NT Rama Rao. Now he wants to betray the principles of TDP&is sitting in pocket of Congress to save his govt. Congress ki kahawat hai 'Hum to doobe hain sanam tumko bhi lekar doobenge'. They will end up like that."

Madhav was referring to Congress-TDP three decades ago, when the TDP was founded by Naidu's father-in-law NT Rama Rao, one of Andhra's most charismatic politicians, with the single purpose of defeating the Congress. He did achieve that and became the first non-Congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1983.

Naidu in fact began his political career as a Congress MLA. He had joined the Congress as a student leader in the 1970s and was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 as a Congress (I) member. He later joined the TDP after marrying the daughter of NT Rama Rao.

In the late 1990s, the TDP contested state elections in alliance with Left parties and in 1999, 2004 and 2014, it was the BJP. In 2009, the TDP was with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti against the Congress.

The TDP quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance three months ago and contesting the upcoming Telengana Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress. The grand alliance to to take of the mighty TRS is called 'Mahakutami'.