TDP opens doors to leaders

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu finally gave his consent to admit YSR Congress MLA C Adinarayana Reddy and former Congress minister Konathala Ramakrishna into the party .
Aiming high for the 2019 elections, Naidu has decided to open doors of the party for the leaders of Congress and YSRCP. While Reddy represents YSRCP from Jammalamadugu, Ramakrishna, a close confidant of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy , left the Congress following a rift with the leadership.
Naidu has also cleared induction of former Union minister A Saipratap, another long-time associate of YSR to the TDP fold.
Ever since the 2014 elections, TDP has succeeded in roping Nandyal MP S P Y Reddy to the party . Another MP from Kurnool. four other MLAs from Kurnool are also in touch with the ruling party and all of them are waiting for the green signal from Naidu.
Meanwhile, Naidu is trying to garner the support of local leaders, including deputy chief minister KE Krishnamurthy on new admissions into the party .
Naidu's plan is simple. As the party is gearing up for the 2019 elections, he does not want to see any big, credible leader in the opposition parties. He is also trying to get the approval from the Centre for delimitation of the assembly seats so that the total number of seats can be increased to 225.
As per the AP Reorganization Act-2014, the number of assembly seats in Telangana state must be increased from 119 to 153 and from 175 to 225 in AP.
To prepare the party with sufficient leaders, when the assembly seats are increased, Naidu has decided to admit important leaders and MLAs from other parties.
After concluding that north coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions are strongholds of YSR Congress party , he asked party district leaders to step up efforts to bring leaders into TDP's fold.
At the same time, he also intensified deve lopment activity in Rayalseema by locating several educational institutions, industries and irrigation projects. “The Galeru-Nagari project will change the face of Kadapa and Ananthpur districts. Kadapa alone will have a storage capacity of 80 TMC feet water with this project. YSRCP leaders are ready to join TDP once our leader give his approval for that,“ CM Ramesh, TDP Rajya Sabha member told TOI.
In north coastal Andhra, admission of Konathala Ramakrishna will give boost to TDP's image of pro-backward caste. Konathala's admission into the party was opposed by local leaders, including district ministers. But, Naidu convinced them stating that their interests would not be compromised even after the joining of Konathala. TDP is also eying to lure two MLAs from Krishna district where the new capital is coming up.
Though primary talks are over, the YSRCP MLAs from Krishna district is said to have expressed some reservations over their position in TDP which need to be resolved by the party president. Similarly , three MLAs from Prakasam and Nellore districts also expressed their readiness to join TDP provided they are promised `due importance' in the government.
“There are several requests to join the TDP, but the party president will take a final call on them and we are not eager to take everyone into the party ,“ said Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, finance minister.