Telugu Desam Party, the main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, has been claiming all these days that it is a national party with existence in more than one state – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Its president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu claims himself the TDP national president and his son Nara Lokesh as the national general secretary of the party.
What is more, the TDP has separate presidents for its Andhra Pradesh and Telangana units – K Atchannaidu and Bakka Narasimhulu and separate state committees, while Naidu remains the TDP national committee head.
However, the Election Commission of India, in its latest notification declared that the TDP is only a regional party and cannot be called a national party, because the party’s both the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh units have the same address in Hyderabad.
Though the TDP earlier had operated from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and to some extent in Tamil Nadu, it has stopped its operations from these states. Even in Telangana, it is there only for the record sake.
Though it had won two assembly seats in 2018 – Sandra Venkata Veeraiah from Sattupalli and Mecha Nageshwara Rao from Ashwaraopet, both of them had joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi one after the other.
So, for all practical purposes, the TDP is confined only to Andhra Pradesh; yet, it has been claiming itself as a national party. But the EC punctured its balloon and included it in the list of 57 recognised regional parties in the country, including YSR Congress party, Telagnana Rashtra Samithi and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen in the Telugu states.
As per the EC notification, there are only eight national parties – Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI (M), Nationalist Congress Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress and National People’s Party.
Interestingly, Jana Sena Party headed by Pawan Kalyan has been included in the list of non-recognised political parties. So, it won’t get the election symbol -- glass tumbler, permanently. It has been included in the list of free symbols.
So, Jana Sena has to apply again for the common election symbol, when it contests the next elections!
