Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is facing a big threat to its very existence in the newly created state of Telangana.
Four TDP MLAs and an MLC met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhara Rao and extended their support and willingness to join the party. According to sources they will officially join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) soon.
Talasani Srinivas Yadav (Sanatnagar), Teegala Krishna Reddy (Maheswaram), Prakash Goud (Rajendranagar) and Ch Dharma Reddy (Parkal) and MLC Gangadhar Goud met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at the camp office. Chandrababu Naidu also held a meeting with all TDP MLAs.
The group that wants to politically relocate is based in Telangana. Mr Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, which serves as the opposition here but is in power across the border in Andhra Pradesh, has 15 members in the Telangana assembly which has a total of 119 representatives.
The rebels from Mr Naidu's party met this morning with KCR in Hyderabad. They said they want to shift allegiance because they aspire to help KCR with his mission to create 'Bangaru Telangana' (Golden Telangana). They said Mr Naidu, the leader of their current party, had wrongly insisted that Hyderabad be a shared capital between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the next 10 years. This and other policies of Mr Naidu, they alleged, are aimed at stemming the growth of their state, which was created in June after Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated.
Telangana has 119 legislators in the assembly. The TDP had won 15 seats. In the last few weeks, a number of Congress, TDP and the YSR Congress party MLAs have switched loyalty and that could mean disqualification under the anti-defection law.
