Nearly a week after the crushing defeat in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday asked party members not be to disheartened by the loss. The outgoing Chief Minister along with his wife Nara Bhuvaneswari and son Nara Lokesh participated in 97th birth anniversary celebrations of his father-in-law and party founder N.T. Rama Rao at the TDP office in Guntur.
Addressing the party leaders and workers after hoisting the party flag, Naidu asked them not to get demoralized. Paying rich tributes to NTR, as the late leader was popularly known, Naidu said he brought honour and recognition to Telugu people at the national and even international level.
He advised party leaders to follow the footsteps of NTR, who despite electoral defeats did not lose self-confidence and played the role of a constructive opposition. He recalled that NTR was the pioneer of the welfare schemes. Naidu said during the last four days many people came to him and said they had stood by the party for over three decades and they would remain so even in future. Stating that the party was more important for him than the family, Naidu said he would stand by the party workers. The 69-year-old announced that he will come to TDP office in Guntur every day and will be available to party leaders and workers for three hours. Naidu called for analyzing the election results.
TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit chief Kala Venkat Rao, MP Galla Jayadev and senior leaders Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and Y. Ramakrishnudu attended the celebrations. TDP faced the worst-ever defeat in the Assembly elections at the hands of YSR Congress Party, which stormed to power with a landslide victory. TDP bagged only 23 seats in the 175-member Assembly and just three of the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
IANS
