Naidu's letter triggers a major storm

The three decade old Telugu Desam Party is in the eye of another major political storm as two more MLAs joined ranks with senior party leader and MLA Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy, who quit the TDP this afternoon.

The Thamballapalli MLA, Praveen Kumar Reddy and  Palamaneru  MLA, Amaranatha Reddy, both hailing from Chandrababu Naidu's his native Chittoor district threatened to quit the party if Naidu's letter written to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was not withdrawn.

In fact, Praveen Kumar Reddy went a step further and said that Chandrababu turned TDP overnight into 'Telnagana Desam Party'. Both the MLAs also alleged that Naidu had betrayed the sentiments of people from the Rayalaseema region.

Earlier, Byreddy Rajasekhara Reddy resigned from the party today in protest against Naidu's letter to the PM on Telangana.He accused Naidu of ignoring the interests of Rayalaseema and playing to the gallery when it came to Telangana.

Interestingly, Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy is all set to start his  Rayalaseema “atma gourava” padayatra from Kethavaram in Kurnool district on October 2 to mobilize support for a separate Rayalaseema while Naidu is scheduled to launch his padayatra on the same day. The Thamballapalli MLA also warned Naidu saying that he will register his protest during the TDP president's padayatra. He also said that the TDP has suffered a lot because of  Naidu’s wrong decisions.

Byreddy strongly criticized Naidu and ridiculed his posturing saying that the TDP president changed N T Rama Rao's song 'Cheyyetti Jaikottu Telugoda' to 'Cheyyetti Jaikottu Telanganavoda'.

- Siva@sakshipost