NIZAMABAD: The Telugu Desam Party leadership is treading warily even as the separate Telangana issue is gradually leading to a depletion of its cadre in the Telangana region. Though the TDP high command has succeeded in preventing key leaders from leaving the party, it seems to have failed in convincing the second rung leaders who have strong cadre support at the grassroots level. Telugu Yuvatha state general secretary and senior leader in Yellareddy assembly constituency Banala Lakshma Reddy along with thousands of his followers joined the BJP on Thursday. Not quite satisfied with party chief Chandrababu Naidu's "two-eyes" policy and his adamant stand against setting up a separate party unit for Telangana, the second rung leaders are scouting for other parties to save their political careers.
"The party is in doldrums in north Telangana. If the leadership doesn't change its policy, the party will be routed," warned a leader from Warangal. With his decision to quit the party for separate Telangana cause, MLA from Banswada and senior leader Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has taken the lead paving the way for other leaders to follow the suit. Lakshma Reddy along with over 3,500 of his followers joined the saffron party in the presence of its state president G Kishan Reddy in Hyderabad.
With this, the TDP, which managed to secure five out of nine assembly segments in Nizamabad district in the 2009 elections fighting the YSR charisma has already lost its hold in three constituencies __ Banswada, Yellareddy and Kamareddy. "At this rate, we would be wiped out in the next elections. The party chief must listen to the second and lower rung leaders and workers," a senior leader, on condition of anonymity, said.
Adilabad TDP district vice-president G Satyanarayana Goud had also quit the party and joined TRS along with thousands of his followers in the presence of TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao in Nirmal a few days ago. Blaming both the TDP and the Congress for politicising the issue and ignoring the aspirations of 4.5 crore Telangana people, Lakshma Reddy said that formation of a separate T state was possible only with BJP at the helm.
Analysts said the trouble for the party in Telangana began with Naidu reversing his stand on the separate statehood issue after Union home minister Chidambaram's December 9, 2009, statement. "The fact that all the TDP candidates had lost their deposits in the byelections in the 12 assembly constituencies last year tantamounts to the growing antipathy towards TDP in the region," a senior analyst said. This drubbing came about despite Naidu undertaking a dharna in Maharashtra demanding justice to the people of six Telangana districts by stopping the illegal construction of Babli barrage by that state, he recalled.
