NTR statue in Parliament : Clan feud likely to cast shadow on the unveiling

The much awaiting unveiling of the TDP founder and former chief minister NTR's statue in Parliament house is likely to be marred by clan feud. NTR's wife and president of the NTR TDP, Lakshmi Parvathi is up in arms against omission of her name in the list of invitees for the function scheduled for May 7. Telugu Desam Party chief,N Chandrababu Naidu has been equally peeved by the fact that he was also not among the invitees.

The TD Parliamentary party leaders decided to meet the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on this issue on Monday while the NTR TDP leader threatened to launch an agitation if she was not invited to the official function by Monday evening. The TDP Parliamentary Party delegation led Nama Nageshwar Rao will submit a memorandum to Speaker for lodging a protest against the non invitation. The TDP MPs have been questioning the reasons for not inviting the party president to the statue unveiling function. The party was not happy with the Union Minister of Textiles D Purandheswari, who is also the daughter of NTR, for trying to make it her own show. The party leaders said that it was TDP which had every right to install the statue because Naidu continued NTR's legacy, the party leaders claimed. Laxmi Parvathi said she did not receive any communication or invitation from Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who happened to be the chief guest of the function. As she was 'legal heir' of NTR, the government should invite her first and then call others, she added. Laxmi Parvathi, who was moving closely with YSR Congress party in the recent times, said she spoke to the Speaker's personal assistant this morning and asked the reason for not inviting her to the function. The latter assured that he will get back to her after taking the issue to the notice of Speaker by Monday evening, she added. Laxmi Parvathi said she also wrote letters to AICC President Sonia Gandhi and BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj against the treatment meted out to her by the Parliament secretariat. "How can there be a function meant for unveiling NTR's statue without me," she questioned. She will release the letters sent to the two national party leaders to the media and announce her action plan if the Lok Sabha secretariat did not respond, she said.