The Telugu Desam party in Telangana was heading for a fresh round of crisis as another senior leader appears to be heading for the exit.
Motkupally Narasimhulu, the most prominent Dalit face of the party has created a stir in the party by suggesting that the TDP Telangana unit should be merged with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
A worried leadership of TDP met in Hyderabad on Saturday to discuss the development. The politburo and the Central Committee members took note of the growing leaning of Narasimhlu towards the TRS. The meeting, chaired by the state TDP President L Ramanna discussed the implications of Narasimhulu quitting the party and joining the TRS. The meeting decided to step up its activities to strengthen the party from the grass root level.
According to the sources close to Narasimhlu, he was unhappy with the TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu to keep his promise of giving him some important position. Soon after 2014 polls when the TDP-BJP alliance came to power in Andhra Pradesh he was promised that the NDA government at the Centre will appoint him as a state governor. With no sign of any such post coming his way, Chandrababu Naidu reportedly assured him Rajya Sabha membership but that also failed to materialize.
Hence a restless Narasimhlu has made up his mind to join the TRS as the party was comfortably placed to win three Rajya Sabha seats going to polls soon.
Sources said that the Chief Minister and TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao has offered him a RS seat and assured him a senior position in the party.
TRS was planning to kill many birds with one stone and was looking at Narasimhulu as a potent weapon to counter the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti leader Manda Krishna Madiga over the issue of categorization of scheduled castes in the state.
Both Manda Krishna and Narasimhulu belong to the same sub caste Madigas. Manda Krishna, a fiery Madiga leader is locked in a confrontation with the TRS government and was presently in jail for trying to hold a protest fast in Hyderabad without police permission.
On Saturday a local court rejected his bail petition and he remains in prison while five of his associates were granted bail and released.
TRS was planning to pit Narasimhulu against Manda Krishna to bring the Madigass in its folds, sources said.
Narasimhulu’s suggestion that the TDP in Telangana should be merged with the ruling TRS has come as a big jolt to the TDP which was already marginalized in the state. Almost all the senior TDP leaders in Telangana have already quit the party and joined TRS while one – the working president of the party A Revanth Reddy recently joined the Congress.
The long list of the senior TDP figures who joined the TRS before and after 2014 polls include Kadiam Srihari, Tummala Nageshwara Rao, P Srinivas Reddy, TDP floor leader in state assembly E Dayakar Rao.
Of the 15 TDP MLAs only one is left with the TDP with almost all others joining the TRS.