It appears several Telugu Desam Party MLAs, including a few ministers, have been non-serious in their functioning at the constituency level, despite repeated warnings by party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and general secretary Nara Lokesh.
Naidu, who has been regularly visiting the party headquarters at Mangalagiri and holding extensive interactions with local TDP leaders and cadre during his district visits for pension distribution programmes, is learnt to have found that several MLAs have been ignoring his directions on being available to the people to resolve their issues.
According to party sources, Naidu has been serious about some MLAs for their lack of adequate engagement with party workers and people of their respective constituencies, which led to the party’s defeat in his earlier stint.
During these interactions, Naidu has been infusing confidence among party workers, assuring them of organisational support. But they have complained that they are not able to get access to the local MLAs.
The chief minister has taken a strict stance against MLAs who delay delivering CMRF (Chief Minister’s Relief Fund) cheques to beneficiaries or fail to personally hand over insurance compensation to families of deceased party workers.
“He even issued notices to 49 MLAs, including some ministers, for lapses in these responsibilities. But there has been no change in the attitude of these MLAs, except a few. They seem to have taken their MLAs seats for granted,” a party source said.
During a recent meeting with party cadres of Kamalapuram constituency in Kadapa district, Naidu raised concerns over disproportionate representation of caste groups in local party posts.
He called for constituency-level “social re-engineering” to ensure equitable representation.
“Everyone votes when the political atmosphere favours a party, but the real test is securing their support at all times,” he reportedly told party workers.
In each constituency meeting, Naidu is specifically evaluating the performance of the local MLA. Parameters include participation in pension distribution, attendance at Swachh Andhra programmes, consistency in conducting public grievance sessions, and progress in membership enrolment drives. Naidu has been openly sharing MLA-wise progress reports with cadres.
He is also reviewing data on voter behaviour—caste-wise, gender-wise, and age-wise preferences; shifts in support following the implementation of welfare schemes such as Super Six; and rural-urban variations in political inclination.
Based on these analyses, Naidu has been directing leaders on where to focus their outreach.
“Yet, some MLAs are behaving an indifferent manner,” the party leader said.
The TDP chief is reportedly maintaining comprehensive personal dossiers on each constituency, covering social representation in appointments, vote shifts between 2024 and potential current scenarios, MLA performance assessments, and identification of inactive or alienated local leaders. Underperforming leaders are said to be receiving subtle warnings.
