As TDP turns 41, Chandrababu Naidu calls for renewed efforts to regain power in AP

Andhra Pradesh has fallen into the hands of destructive forces and the time has come for everyone to rededicate efforts to restore the ‘Telugu pride’, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said on the occasion of the Telugu Desam Party turning 41 on Tuesday.

The regional party took birth 40 years ago in Hyderabad when Telugu matinee idol NT Rama Rao announced the name on 29 March 1982. The TDP made history by forming the government in united Andhra Pradesh in a record nine months from the time of its foundation. It was the first non-Congress ruled government of the state.

In its four decades of existence, the party has been in power for over half of the time. In the 1984 general elections, held after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the NTR led party won 30 Lok Sabha seats becoming the second-largest party in Parliament after the Congress.

The regional party played a crucial role in national politics too, forming the national front and united front governments in the nineties. The TDP had later supported the BJP led governments at the centre during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure and Narendra Modi’s first term as the prime minister.

After an internal conflict within the party which saw NTR dethroned, Naidu (NTR’s son-in-law) took over as the chief minister and the party chief in 1995. While he remained the CM of united AP till 2004, Naidu was elected as the first CM of the residual Andhra Pradesh in the 2014 elections.

While the TDP gradually declined in the Telangana region after the new state’s formation, it lost power in AP to the Jaganmohan Reddy led YSRCP in the 2019 elections.

Managing to win only 23 assembly constituencies out of the total 175, and some of the MLAs switching loyalties to Jagan, Naidu is now facing an uphill task of bringing TDP back to power.

Accusing Jagan of “stalling Amaravati and chasing away industries” the three-time CM is now calling for “a renewed struggle for ‘reconstruction of Andhra Pradesh’.

“In this long journey, the TDP has overcome many obstacles. We should explain to the public the need of TDP to the state,” Naidu said.

Naidu said that NTR had sown a strong foundation for the party’s pro-poor welfare agenda.

“NTR had ushered in bold reforms like cancelling the Patel-Patwari system and introducing the mandal system of local administration for reaching out to people. The Rs 2 kg rice scheme became a model for food security for the whole country.”

Naidu also asserted that the TDP had laid the foundation for a vibrant knowledge economy in united AP by developing IT etc infrastructure projects. But there has been no development in the past three years, the opposition leader said.

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