Congress takes initiative to install NTR statue in Parliament

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao tossed a coin during a short break while shooting a Telugu movie and announced the formation of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in a jiffy on March 29, 1982. Within nine months he toured the whole state of Andhra Pradesh, raked up Telugu pride and won elections trouncing the Congress, which till then had left the voters with no other option but to vote for them term after term.

The TDP also achieved the rare distinction of being the first regional party to become the main opposition party in the eighth Lok Sabha from 1984 to 1989. The party has governed the state of Andhra Pradesh twice from 1983 to 1989 and then from 1994 to 2004.Thus NTR put a stop to the tradition of frequent change of chief ministers at the behest of the high-command sitting in New Delhi.

In a move that shocked the TDP last week, NTR’s daughter, Congress MP and union minister Daggubati Purandeswari stole the show by taking a leading role in installing her father’s statue in the Parliament House in the presence of the prime minister and the Lok Sabha speaker. TDP chief and former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who happens to be the son-in-law of NTR, and his TDP men were also present, but as mere spectators.

But, Naidu who was considered as kingmaker during the NDA regime and had his close associate and Dalit leader Balayogi installed as the Lok Sabha Speaker in a most dramatic way, never took initiative to install NTR’s statue in Parliament. “Did we ask him (Naidu) not to install his father in law’s statue in Parliament? Naidu didn’t want to do it as he was trying to erase NTR’s memory and projecting himself as the sole monarch of TDP,” says Botsa Satyanarayana, the APCC chief.

Even before the date for installation was announced a new trend of flexi board war has already begun, with YSR Congress sympathizers using photos of NTR and Jr NTR on party flexi boards in an effort to highlight the vertical split in family members of NTR. This happened at a time when the beleaguered TDP was trying to rekindle party founder and demi god of Telugu cinema NTR's memories to improve his sagging image.

Posters of the YSRC party depicting Jr NTR and YS Jagan started dotting all main roads of Krishna district during the Padayatra of YS Jagan’s sister Sharmila. In fact a local leader who is a fan of both Jagan and Jr NTR whose recent film Badshah was up for release, ordered many such posters to show his loyalty. However Krishna district TDP has condemned the act, but the issue got murkier.

As Sharmila’s padayatra went into the hinterland, posters with archrivals YSR and senior NTR replaced the ones with the young players Jagan and Jr NTR. Supporting the YSRC cadre for owning NTR and Jr NTR, TDP rebel MLA Kodali Nani of Gudivada (which was once represented by late NTR) who recently joined the YSR Congress has said that everyone has the right to use the picture of late N T Rama Rao, except the TDP.

Back to power

TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu drove out NTR from the party and was responsible for his death, Nani said. He said TDP has no chance of winning the elections and coming back to power and this was the reason why Chandrababu was politicizing even NTR's photographs. Nani said people held both NTR and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in high esteem.
NTR's prodigal son and actor Balakrishna on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu lashed out at Jr NTR (Harikrishna’s son) for not condemning the mischievous acts of YSRC cadre. He even threatened him of dire consequences, if Jr NTR failed to comply.

He also said he would sue the YSR Congress for using his father N T Rama Rao’s pictures in their banners. Even though Balakrishna said he had no differences with Jr. NTR it may be recalled that not very long ago Balakrishna saw to it that no TDP leader was associated with Jr NTR’s visit to Vijayawada saying that he was on a promotion strip and there is no need for the party cadre to follow him. 

While Balayya is in full support of his son-in-law Nara Lokesh (Only son of Chandrababu Naidu) occupying centre stage in TDP, Jr NTR‘s father Harikrishna opposed Lokesh taking Naidu’s  place. He is believed to have told members of the family that the party leadership should come back to a member of the Nandamuri family after the retirement of Naidu.

The TDP alleged that Purandareswari, who was guiding the invitation process, saw  it to that Naidu was invited to the unveiling function. The invitation finally came through none other than Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar over the phone after party MPs met her thrice and requested her to forward an invitation to their party President, NTR’s wife Lakshmi Parvathi received no such invitation till the last minute.

The TDP which was driven to sidelines, believes that Purandeswari was behind this invitation fiasco. “She played petty politics and saw to it that NTR’s wife Lakshmi Parvathi was not invited,”TDP leader Nananpaneni Rajakumari said.

While all the other family members attended the unveiling ceremony, and posed for a family photo forgetting differences, Congress party MPs of the state mounted pressure on party chief Sonia Gandhi not to attend the unveiling of the statue.

Fans of NTR, who are pitching for a posthumous Dada Saheb Phalke award for their hero, point out that their “Anna” in politics was not even given any award except Padmasri while lesser mortals won many awards. They feel that dislodging the Congress in record time has worked against NTR.