The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which has been licking its wounds after a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha and Assembly election in Andhra Pradesh was left red-faced on Monday after its MP Kesineni Srinivas alias Nani threatened to resign following a no-holds barred spat on Twitter with Buddha Venkanna, a member of the legislative council.

Both Nani and Venkanna launched personal attacks against each other that threatened to reveal skeletons in the TDP’s cupboard.

The battle took a serious turn on Monday when Nani threatened to resign from the Lok Sabha membership as well as the primary membership of the TDP, if party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu did not control “his pet dog,” in an obvious reference to Venkanna.

“Chandrababu garu, if you don’t want people like me in the party, you can let me know I will resign as Member of Parliament and also to the Party membership. If you want people like me to continue, please control your pet dog ,” Nani tweeted.

A TDP leader familiar with the development said Naidu called up both Nani and Venkanna separately and asked them to maintain restraint. “The party president asked both of them to meet him later and assured them to sort out differences between them,” he said.

Venkanna, who is also president of TDP Vijayawada (urban) unit, later said he was putting a full-stop to the Twitter war. Referring to Nani calling him as pet dog of Naidu, the MLC said: “I am a staunch loyalist of Naidu, who had made a lawmaker. So, I don’t mind being called with any name. I am stopping this war for the sake of Naidu and the party,” he tweeted in Telugu.

Differences between Nani and Venkanna had surfaced with the former suspecting sabotage by the latter in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Nani managed to retain the Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat for a second successive term with a slender margin of 8,726 votes over YSR Congress candidate and industrialist Potluri Vara Prasad.

On the other hand, Venkanna was angry over Nani for encouraging his rival Nagul Meera as the prospective candidate for Vijayawada (West) assembly constituency.

In a bitter war of words on Sunday, the two leaders made wild allegations against each other and accused each other of betraying the party.

While the MP took pot shots at the MLC for allegedly meeting YSRC general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy along with some film personalities to join the ruling party, Venkanna accused Nani of finding excuses to defect to another party.

He reminded that Nani had ditched Praja Rajyam Party founded by K Chiranjeevi in the past to defect to the TDP.

While Nani tweeted that a person who cannot read or write beyond few words was actually tweeting, Venkanna said the party needed someone who would fight for the party and the party leader in times of crisis.

“A person who joins forces with the opposition parties is dangerous. The party doesn’t need opportunistic people like you (Nani), it needs someone who can fight for Chandrababu like a soldier who is ready to lay down his life,” Venkanna countered.

The MLC also alleged that Nani had committed large-scale irregularities in his now-closed transport business. And the MP posted a counter-tweet recalling that Venkanna was involved in money circulation scheme and sex racket in the past.

First Published: Jul 15, 2019 17:27 IST