#EndOfTDP Begins Trending As TDP Keeps Off Parishad Polls

For the first time ever since its inception, the TDP has decided to boycott the Parishad elections and it evoked mixed response from various quarters. Though the party surpemo N. Chandrababu Naidu asserted that the decision was taken in protest against the illegalities and political violence perpetrated by the ruling YCP during the panchayat and municipal polls held earlier, #EndOfTDP began trending on social media hinting at obliteration of the party in Andhra Pradesh too, after being wiped out in neighbouring Telagnana.

A few netizens, understandably YCP sympathisers and leaders, have been interpreting the boycott as accepting defeat even without entering the battlefield and making mockery of the 40-year-old party.

However, Naidu claimed that contesting the elections was never uncommon for their party and that facing undemocratic forces and rowdyism in the elections was proving challenging. Are you making a mockery of democracy by wielding police power and money power, he asked. Where are you getting wads of currency notes from, he questioned the YCP leaders.

The TDP supremo said that withdrawing from the elections was an act to make people understand the undemocratic practices adopted by the ruling YCP.

He said that it was the first time in his history that the TDP abstained from contesting the elections. Even when the Telangana agitation was at its peak, the TDP fielded candidates in the polls, he said, reminding that only during special conditions when former PM P.V. Narasimha Rao contested the elections from Nandyal Lok Sabha constituency, Hyderabad bypolls after the demise of Congress senior leader P. Janardhan Reddy, bypolls following the killing of Congress leader Ragya Naik by the extremists and untimely death of YCP leader Sobha Nagi Reddy, the TDP did not contest.

The TDP is finding it new to fight against the police who are resorting to unprecedented acts of violence at the behest of the ruling YCP, he pointed out.

The TDP has always been a disciplined party being answerable to the public, he claimed. This is the first time that the TDP had kept away from the entire election process, he said. It is mainly due to the harassment and attacks on the candidates of the opposition parties by the ruling party that we have taken this tough decision, he added.

But, party senior leaders like Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Bucchaiah Chowdary, Ayyana Patrudu, Kuna Ravi Kumar and Jyothula Nehru opposed Naidu’s decision. Jyothula Nehru even quit the party post of TDP AP vice president in resentment to Naidu’s decision about polls.

The party senior leaders felt that they can keep the cadre intact only if polls are contested. There were other leaders who felt that it was a waste of time, energy and money to contest the elections knowing pretty well that the result would be in favour of the ruling party.

Now, it has to be seen what would the TDP leaders, who had already filed their nominations for the Parishad elections when they were paused last year, do with their party chief taking a contradictory decision in the eleventh hour.