TDP: Political Party Or Political University?

The beleaguered Telugu Desam Party is going through one of its toughest phases. The party which was founded 38 years ago in 1982 had been in power for over 20 years. It held so many records like forming the first non-Congress government in AP in 1983 to becoming the first regional party in the country to become the main Opposition party at 8th Lok Sabha from 1984 to 1989. But all this glory is gone. The glory phase has passed.

TDP is slowly losing its sheen. Shrinking its strength in the Telugu states, TDP is now limited to Andhra Pradesh as it had lost its erstwhile strong foothold region Telangana to TRS. From KCR to Errabelli Dayakar Rao to Kadiam Srihari to Talasani Srinivas Yadav, many of once TDP’s strongest leaders in Telangana have moved to TRS in a mass exodus and thus the party almost become non-entity in the region which was once its bastion. It’s an endgame for TDP in Telangana as its leaders like Revanth Reddy moved to Congress and many others joined BJP. On the other hand, TDP is losing its leaders in AP to parties like YSRCP, BJP and Janasena.

Be it Gannavaram MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi or its senior leaders like Sujana Chowdary, CM Ramesh or ex minister Ramasubba Reddy or Pulivendula’s TDP leader and former deputy chairman of Legislative Council Satish Reddy or ex MLA of Elamanchili Panchakarla Ramesh Babu or Karanam Balaram, the list of TDP leaders who quit the party for greener pastures is huge.

The latest is former minister Sidda Raghava Rao, who unsuccessfully contested from Ongole parliament from TDP in 2019, has now joined YSRCP. He had joined the party in the presence of CM YS Jagan.

Especially after the arrests of Atchannaidu, JC Prabhakar Reddy, JC Asmith Reddy, there are reports that many TDP leaders are queueing to leave the party and join YSRCP. While some of them are switching loyalties for political asylum or a refugee camp in the ruling party whereas others are changing parties for greener pastures.

This exodus from TDP is not going to stop anytime soon. It’s learnt that several TDP leaders like Ganta and others are also looking at better opportunities. With many of the strongmen leaving TDP, the opposition party in AP is in tatters. It’s buzzed that lack of belief and trust in Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh could be one of the reasons for its leaders leaving the party.

Political analysts opine that TDP is turning out to be a Political University which is producing politicians/students who are passing out from it and thus serving the other political parties. It’s high-time, TDP supremo Chandrababu and his successor Nara Lokesh should take stern measures to save the party and its leaders in this crisis. Or else, the party would suffer more damage in the coming days.