The Telugu Desam Party is almost out of Telangana after the bifurcation of combined state in June 2014. In the assembly elections held before the formation of Telangana, the TDP won 15 assembly seats, but except three, all of them jumped into the TRS.
In 2018 December elections, the TDP made a desperate bid to prove its existence in Telangana by joining hands with the Congress and others to form grand alliance. But it ended up with just 3.5 per cent of vote share and two assembly seats of which one jumped into the TRS.
So, virtually, there is no TDP in Telangana now. It could not win even a single seat in the recently held Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and its vote share came down to around 1 per cent.
Yet, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu appears to have not learnt any lesson. Irrespective of whether the party loses or not, he wants the TDP to be in the fray in every election.
According to latest reports, the TDP has decided to contest the ensuing by-elections to Nagarjunasagar assembly seat, which has become a matter of prestige for the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
In fact, the BJP itself is not in a position to put up a fight there, though its stakes have gone high after the victory in Dubbak by-elections and GHMC polls. However, the TDP wants to enter the fray despite knowing that it can’t even retain its deposit.
Party sources said the Telangana TDP has finalised the candidature of Muvva Arun Kumar for the Nagarjunasagar seat. Apparently, Naidu is of the view that it is better to lose fighting the polls, rather than conceding the loss without a fight.
