Harikrishna: Patching up

Hyderabad, May 23: Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu wants to bring all members of N.T. Rama Rao’s family into the party fold as he plans a return to the icon’s pro-poor policies.

Naidu had kept the family members at a distance after he snatched the party’s reins from his father-in-law in 1995, a year before he died. NTR’s son Nandamuri Harikrishna, who had floated the outfit Anna TDP to tap his father’s popularity in 1999 but was routed, has now made peace with Naidu.

Harikrishna’s actor son, popularly known as NTR Junior, is likely to become the new mascot of the Desam, which is gearing up to give the Congress a tough fight in the coming panchayat polls.

Taking a cue from the recent success of Tamil Nadu’s victorious DMK, which wooed voters with pre-poll sops like cheaper rice and TV sets, the Desam is expected to announce a return to NTR’s pro-poor policies at a conclave in Rajahmundry on May 28.

NTR’s actor son Balakrishna is also likely to return to the party during the conclave. So will his other two politically active sons Jayakrishna and Sai Krishna.

Almost all members of the family, except his elder son-in-law D. Venkateswar Rao, are headed back to the Desam as part of Naidu’s efforts to fall back on NTR’s legacy.

Venkateswar Rao’s wife D. Purandareswari is a Congress MP and minister in the UPA government. A staunch opponent of Naidu, he is yet to forget the humiliation heaped on him after NTR’s death in 1996 and will stay away from the reunion.

“The regrouping and rejuvenating of all forces within the Telugu Desam and NTR’s family are designed to give the party a facelift to attract youth and women,” said Naidu.

The Desam is likely to make announcements on Telengana to keep the party cadre and the backward classes in its flock. It will also take on the BJP, which deserted it last year.

Former home minister T. Devender Gowd, a backward class leader, is likely to be given a key position in the party to woo the backward classes and rally around the pro-Telengana sentiment. NTR fans’ associations and other relics will be revived to gain political mileage.

State finance minister K. Rosaiah said: “The Telugu Desam Party is once again preparing to fool the people, but the public is wiser now.”