Naidu draws flak for party's failure at polls

Former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu and several of his former ministerial colleagues have come under severe criticism from partymen for the debacle in the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

TDP's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party has also come under scrutiny as most of the leaders felt that it had proved a liability for the party's prospects in the elections.

Participating in a discussion on the reasons for the defeat of the TDP in a two-day party 'Mahanadu' which began here yesterday, several leaders spoke at length about the over-centralisation of party functioning, Naidu's indulgence with his coterie and the self serving attitude of ministers among other things.

The first day's session was confined to only contestants in the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

This is for the first time after Naidu took over the reigns of TDP and the corresponding nine-year stint in the government, that the second rung leaders have dared to come out openly against his methods in the party forum.

Keeping his opening remarks unusually short, the party supremo, Naidu, appealed to the participants not to resort to personalised attacks on any one so as not to vitiate the atmosphere in the party.

While conceding that no one, including him, was above mistakes, Naidu told his partymen that they all have to share collective responsibility for the drubbing in the elections.

Makineni Peda Rattaiah, a senior leader who lost in assembly elections, was more vocal on the shortcomings of the party leadership, particularly of Naidu.

"You have only listened to the coterie that surrounded you. You believed only those who told you persistent lies. By keeping yourself busy with video conferences for hours you have distanced yourself from the party and the masses," he told Naidu.

Rattaiah and several others were very critical about the style of functioning of the party leadership. "It is very bad that each and every decision, including Naidu's tour programmes were purely decided and implemented from the party headquarters," Rattaiah quipped.

He observed that chronic indiscipline has pervaded almost 80 per cent of the party ranks. Leaders also accused several ministers for working against party candidates.

Expressing a common sentiment among the party ranks about the alliance with BJP, Madala Janakiram, a leader from the influential coastal region told that the minorities, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes had moved away from the party on account of the alliance.

Gorantla Butchaiah Choudary who failed to retain his Rajamundry seat observed that women on whom the party rested its entire hopes had actually ditched the TDP in the recent elections. "We raised their aspirations and we could not fulfill them. The defeat is of our own making," he said.

Baireddy Rajasekhara Reddy, a leader from Rayalaseema observed that the TDP government had failed to know what people really wanted, basking all the while in the agenda of development.

Several speakers also criticised Naidu's decision to go in for early polls. Naidu, who has maintained all through the elections that he had sufficient feedback and reports on the winning chances of each of the prospective candidate as well as the party itself, finally spilled the beans at Thursday's meeting.

"Reports submitted by the party observers were not consistent on any issue. They were full of contradictions. In those circumstances my decisions too went wrong in certain instances," he confessed to the leaders in his opening remarks.