Young hero N T Rama Rao’s arrival in Vijayawada to participate in a jewellery shop inauguration has created an embarrassing situation for the Telugu Desam Party ranks in Krishna district.

Though they are all great fans of NTR, they preferred to stay away from the function following reports that the party leadership, particularly senior actor Nandamuri Balakrishna, had sent a message to them to ignore NTR’s tour. There were no TDP banners and posters welcoming NTR, except that of NTR’s fans associations, in Vijayawada on Saturday.

However, former Gudivada MLA Ravi Venkateshwara Rao denied the reports that he had received instructions from Balakrishna to stay away from NTR function.

“First of all, I do not know about the function. Secondly, there was no call from Balaiah not to attend the function. Some vested interests are floating such rumours to create rifts among the NTR family members,” Rao said.