TDP leadership not taking Hyderabad civic election seriously? 

VIJAYAWADA: After facing a humiliating debacle in the last Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections despite party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh, who is also the general secretary of the party, making a whirlwind campaigning, the TDP seems to be not taking the ongoing elections seriously. 

Even as Naidu recently announced the party’s Central committee and AP and Telangana units, TDP sources informed that party entrusted the whole task — from selection of candidates and campaigning in the GHMC elections —  with the TDP Telangana unit. Though the BJP and Congress are roping in national leaders for campaigning for their party candidates, the TDP Central Committee leaders hailing from Andhra Pradesh say that they have not received any instructions from the party leadership to participate in the electioneering in Hyderabad.  

“Despite having a few MLAs in Hyderabad and undertaking an intensive campaign in the 2016 GHMC elections, we have limited to a single seat out of the total 150 divisions. So, this time, the party has decided to focus on the divisions where it has a strong base,’’ a party leader said. “Now, we have lost  power in AP and kept our focus here rather than Telangana and all our efforts in the neighbouring state may be considered as a struggle for existence of the party,” he reasoned.