Harikrishna Letter: NTR Won't Comment

Actor and son of Nandamuri Harikrishna, Jr. NTR on Sunday refused to be drawn into the developments in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Talking to media persons while participating in a program in the city, the actor refused to answer the questions regarding the alleged rift between the Nanadamuri and Nara families, and requested the scribes to pose those questions to his father Nandamuri Harikrishna. "He is the right person to comment on developments in the TDP," the actor said.

Jr. NTR was responding to requests by the media persons to comment on the alleged rift between the 2 families, which was sparked by Harikrishna's written statement that he would lead an agitation against corruption in politics soon.

Harikrishna, a TDP MP and the eldest son of former Chief Minister and TDP Founder N T Rama Rao, created a flutter in the party and in the political circles on Saturday through his letter. The letter alleged that those who did not even have a small piece of land had earned thousands of crores of rupees after joining politics, a charge consistently leveled against TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu by his political opponents.

In his letter, Harikrishna had also lauded the efforts of his father NTR to eradicate corruption. He had also vowed to go before the people and launch a fight against corruption, thus fulfilling his father's aspirations.

A statement in the letter that says "I (Harikrishna) am the protector of NTR's ideals” has created a flutter in the TDP, and has lead observers to surmise that the MP was not happy with Naidu's style of functioning.

According to reports, Jr. NTR resents the growing influence of Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh in the party, but so far this resentment has been shielded from the public.

Meanwhile, Naidu has denied the existence of any rift between the Nara and Nandamuri families, and has described the media reports as an evidence of the media's "imaginative skills".

The TDP has also been making efforts to convey that the corrupt politician mentioned by Harikrishna in the letter was former Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, and not Chandrababu Naidu. (INN)