TDP head and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today held a meeting with the leaders of his party in his constituency, Kuppam.
The leader, who is in Kuppam after a gap of many years, was forced to make the visit after the TDP faced a rather humiliating defeat in the recently-held panchayat elections.
Hoping to console the wounded and demoralised TDP rank and file, he had embarked on
the three-day trip yesterday. Many believe the tour was also prompted by the former CM's attempt to reconsolidate his position both within the party in general and in his constituency in particular.
Naidu, who held a meeting with the local leaders of the Gudupalle and Kuppam mandals of Chittoor district yesterday, met the district-level party leaders today, and reportedly discussed the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections. Former minister Amarnath Reddy and MLC G Srinivasulu were among the leaders who attended the meeting.
The TDP chief also received representations from the residents of his constituency.
At the meeting, he told party members and the people of Kuppam that the TDP had lost the elections because the ruling party, the YSR Congress Party, had resorted to unfair means to win the same. He then asserted that his constituency would remain a stronghold of the yellow party despite the "ploys" of the Jagan regime.
Reports say that while only time will tell what effect Naidu's attempts to mollify party leaders annoyed by their recent defeat, and to reconsolidate his position in his constituency will have, there are already clear signs that many local-level leaders feel that the TDP needs fresh and more popular faces to save it from electoral oblivion - this became evident when, much to the former CM's displeasure, many TDP activists reportedly began to demand that film actor Junior NTR be brought into the party, at one of the meetings. They claimed that the move was necessary if the TDP was to survive.