Ever since Telugu Desam Party lost the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, former minister and chairman of Narayana Group of Institutions Ponguru Narayana has been keeping away from the party activities.
While TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been struggling hard to bring back the glory to the party for the last three and a half years, Narayana is not seen anywhere in the party programmes, agitations and meetings.
On the other hand, he has been facing criminal cases in various scams – Amaravati land scam, outer ring road scam and Class X question paper leakage scam. Though the party has stood by him, Narayana has hardly been taking part in the agitations, but trying to save his own skin.
At one stage, there was a talk that Narayana might dump the TDP and jump the fence into the BJP to protect his business interests. So, the TDP leadership appointed senior leader Kotamreddy Srinivasulu Reddy as the in-charge of Nellore (urban) constituency from where Narayana lost to YSR Congress party’s Anil Kumar Yadav by a narrow margin in 2019.
Now that elections are just a year away, Narayana has once again started lobbying for the TDP ticket from Nellore (urban). He reportedly met Naidu recently and requested that he be given the ticket again.
Surprisingly, Naidu is learnt to have agreed to Narayana’s request and even announced his candidature, despite the fact that he is facing several criminal cases and is likely to get arrested in any one of them.
Apparently, Narayana has blackmailed Naidu for the ticket because both were hand in glove in Amaravati land issue. Narayana, who was the municipal administration and urban development minister during the TDP regime, had played crucial role in land allotments.
If Naidu denies him the ticket, there is no surprise he may leak crucial information with regard to many of these land deals.
Secondly, since Narayana is a cash-rich party, he might help the party financially in the next assembly elections. So, Naidu has no other option but to give him the ticket!
