TDP plans 2 massive meetings this month

Amaravati: To keep the anti-BJP kettle boiling, the TDP has planned two massive public meetings, one at Visakhapatnam and the other at Nellore this week, with reports emanating from Delhi indicating that there might be early elections either in November or December this year.

In Visakhapatnam, the TDP MPs will organise a protest meeting against the BJP on June 27 for not sanctioning the railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters. As it is essentially a Central issue, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has left the meeting to MPs to do the rabble- rousing act against the BJP.

In Nellore, the Chief Minister will participate in Dalita Tejam public meeting on June 30. This meeting, intended to take Dalits on board, is expected to be a major congregation of people. The TDP expects to mobilise at least one lakh people for the public meeting. It is intended to create awareness among the SCs on the welfare schemes being implemented by the state government during the last four years.

These two meetings apart, Naidu has directed the party MLAs to take active part in Grama Darshini, an interaction with villagers, to explain to them what the government has been doing for their benefit and what has been done already. He wanted them to find out form them how they were leading their lives and what more they were expecting from the government.

Already, the hunger strike by Rajya Sabha member CM Ramesh is going on in Kadapa with a number of his followers keeping him company, calling the BJP names. Naidu has planned these meetings to keep alive the feeling of betrayal against the BJP which he hopes would keep them united in favour of the TDP so that he could fight an effective battle against the YSRCP.

This apart, Naidu is also not letting go of any opportunity in promoting awareness among the people on welfare schemes that the state government has initiated to build a positive vote bank in favour of the TDP and making the party strong from the grassroots level by dealing with the deficiencies, if any.

The protests by the MPs that are going on now are part of Naidu’s strategy to ensure that the special category status remains a cause to protest till they leave for Delhi for the next session of Parliament in July. After Visakhapatnam meeting on June 27, the MPs would take up backwardness as an issue at Anantapur public meeting and finally in Amaravati, they would focus on lack of cooperation form the Centre in funding the construction of Amaravati.

In addition to these programmes, Chandrababu Naidu also planned several public meetings on behalf of the state government. In these meetings, he will demand justice to the state and also launch scathing attack on the Central government, the BJP and YSRCP. “From now on, Naidu will participate in at least 75 public meetings in order to ensure the party will return to power,” one senior TDP leader said.

By Madamanchi Sambasiva Rao