Despite receiving setbacks in the last two assembly elections in Telangana, Telugu Desam Party has once again decided to put up a fight in the assembly elections in the state, scheduled to be held in November or December.
The Telangana TDP, which has virtually lost its existence in the state, has gained some momentum after party president N Chandrababu Naidu addressed a few meetings in the state, including the huge rally at Khammam in December 2022.
Telangana TDP’s new president Kasani Gyaneshwar is learnt to have decided to intensify its fight for existence in the state by taking up a bus yatra covering all the districts, starting from August 3.
The route map and the programme were decided at a meeting held by Gyaneshwar on Wednesday. He announced formation of nine committees to take out the bus yatra and to make it a success. A workshop would be conducted at NTR Trust Bhavan on July 28 and 29 to decide the route map.
But one wonders what the TDP is going to achieve by fighting the elections in Telangana, in which it has virtually no stakes. The party has no strength or network to come to power in Telangana; above all, there is no support from the people.
Even if the TDP gets two or three MLA seats in Telangana with a lot of difficulty, there is no guarantee that they would continue in the party, as the past history shows they would jump into the ruling party at a later date.
In 2014, the TDP had won 15 MLA seats in Telangana, but 12 of them had joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, including high profile leaders like Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Teegala Krishna Reddy.
Subsequently, Revanth Reddy also defected to the Congress, while R Krishnaiah and S Venkata Veeraiah remained with the TDP till the last moment.
In 2018 elections, the TDP joined hands with the Congress and other parties to form a grand alliance to defeat the TRS, but it could win only two MLAs – S Venkata Veeraiah and Mecha Nageshwara Rao, but both of them had joined the TRS (now BRS) later.
Now, the TDP wants to test its fortunes again in the 2023 assembly elections in Telangana. But there is no guarantee that those who won the TDP ticket would stick to the party and not join the ruling party.
So, what is the point in the TDP wasting its money and energies?
