Devender Goud Quit TDP, starting party!

The Telugu Desam second in command, Mr T. Devender Goud, quit the party on Monday over its refusal to champion the cause of a separate Telangana state.

In his resignation letter, Mr Goud pointed out that the TD had performed well in the recent bypolls since it had announced that it was not against Telangana.

“But after the bypolls, some leaders in the party are again reiterating the united Andhra slogan, which is nothing but betraying the people of this region,” Mr Goud said.

He said the people of Telangana region have been exploited in every aspect by the other regions and also flayed the TD leadership for encouraging those who criticised him.

The Telangana protagonist, Devender Goud, will announce his new political outfit after a brainstorming session with Telangana intellectuals on June 28 in hyderabad.

The prospect of Mr Goud starting his own party is creating ripples in the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which is espousing the cause of separate Telangana. The TRS ideologue, Prof K. Jayasankar, party adviser on irrigation matters Mr R. Vidyasagar Rao and some other intellectuals, who are backing TRS chief Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao called on Mr Goud at his residence on Tuesday.

It is learnt that Mr Rao sent Prof Jayasankar as an emissary to have a co-ordination with Mr Goud’s party. But, Mr Goud bluntly rejected the proposal of a tie-up with the TRS. “We won’t sail with the TRS under any circumstances,” he said.

The TRS leadership apparently feels that as Mr Goud belongs to the backward community and his goal is the same as that of the TRS, there may be mass migrations from the party to Mr Goud’s outfit in the backdrop of the recent debacle in the recent bypolls.

Prof Jayasankar said the Telangana movement has reached a crucial stage. He called upon all pro-statehood forces to launch a unified agitation. He said that Telangana statehood would be a reality after 2009 elections.

NTR family to hit roads for Naidu

The NTR family has warmed up to the Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, after he nominated Nandamuri Harikrishna to the Rajya Sabha, braving strong pressure from the backward classes lobby.

Mr Harikrishna, who has been associated with the TD ever since his father NTR floated it in early 1980s, is regarded as an ‘elder' by the family members.

Similarly, Mr Harikrishna will also field his son and actor, Junior NTR, and a host of film personalities to campaign for the TD, to help it avoid a defeat in the 2009 Assembly polls. Party workers got a foretaste of this when he invited a host of film directors, producers, actors and actresses to the NTR Bhavan before he left to file his nomination papers.

With his nomination to the RS, Mr Naidu has got cosy with the family again after a gap of more than a decade.

NTR's family had initially sided with Mr Naidu after the party witnessed a vertical split following the Lakshmi Parvati episode in 1995.

However, the family members, particularly Mr Harikrishna, distanced themselves from Mr Naidu within a couple of years.

Now, 12 years down the line, the TD supremo has been able to bring about a ‘political patch up' with the family in the hope that it would pay dividends during the polls.

It is to be seen if Mr. Naidu's gesture towards Mr. Harikrishna helps the TD, which is plagued by infighting and dissidence in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema and rattled by the separate Telangana demand.

TD sources claim that the entire NTR family barring the Daggubatis - Union minister Purandareswari and her husband MLA Venkateswara Rao who are in the Congress - has now pledged support to Mr Naidu.

Mr Harikrishna's younger brother and film actor Balakrishna has gone on record that he would campaign for the TD in the next Assembly elections.

Voice of ANR, Krishna, YSR, KCR and Bala krishna

Funny conversation between ANR, Nagarjuna, YSR, Chandra Babu Naidu, KCR, Balakrishna and more...

Warning: Audio contains bad words

Tech Babu goes live with radio over Net

The main opposition Telugu Desam has set up an online radio station named TDP Radio. All you need is an Internet connection and a pair of speakers to tune into TD's version of the happenings in the State.

TDP Radio is the brainchild of party president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who has a yen for things hi-tech. He wants to disseminate hot news of the state to Telugu speaking people living in foreign countries, with a TD slant of course. It can be assessed by clicking TD's official website, www.Telugudesamparty.org.

Mr Naidu got the idea of having his own radio station after the recent interaction with Telugu speaking NRIs in the US, the UK and Canada.

A survey conducted by the party showed that about five million Telugu speaking people were living in about 100 countries. "The online radio service will not only give news to Telugu's but will also keep them in touch with our party," said a senior TD leader.

An exclusive website for the Telugu NRIs for exchange of views on various important topics has also been set up by TD. Telugus outside the country can post their views on TDP Radio in the NRI website. Since TDP Radio is webcast, it can be accessed and heard from anywhere in the globe. TD is perhaps the only political party in the country to have its own online radio station. Mr Naidu has also set up video links in the party's official website to enable people to see happenings in TD headquarters NTR Bhavan. Press conferences held at NTR Bhavan are webcast, both in audio and video formats.

Now that the State Assembly elections fast approaching, Mr Naidu is also thinking of reviving his party's mouthpiece, Telugu Desam Weekly, published earlier in Telugu and Urdu.