Dadi quits TDP

• Likely to join YSRCP
• Says Naidu walked 2000 km but took TDP back by 3000 km
• Naidu makes vain bid to contact him

Hyderabad: At a time when Telugu Desam Party was working out strategies to consolidate the gains it had got from the 2,817 km long Vastunna Meekosam Padayatra by party presidentA N Chandrababu Naidu, the party got a major shock on Thursday when senior leader Dadi Veerabhadra Rao resigned from the party.

Veerabhadra Rao who was the leader of opposition in Legislative Council has been sulking as he was not re-nominated to the council. Rao's son Ratnakar who is the Visakhapatnam rural president of TDP also resigned from the party. Both the father and son had sent in their resignations by email to party headquarters.

Soon after receiving the email, Naidu who has been recuperating from the leg injury he suffered during the walkathon tried to contact Rao over phone but could not reach him. Another senior leader and politburo member Y Ramakrishnudu also tried to contact Dadi over phone but could not succeed.

Dadi has convened a meeting of his followers at Anakapalle on Friday to explain the circumstances under which he had decided to quit TDP and his next course of action. It is being speculated that he is all set to join the YSR Congress party.

Dadi after being denied re-nomination to the Legislative Council had met minister for infrastructure Ganta Srinivasa Rao, raising speculations that he may join Congress. Dadi had also made a highly critical comment against TDP president saying that while Naidu walked 2,000 km, the party had gone backwards by 3,000 km. Rao also alleged that on one hand Naidu announced BC declaration and soon after that he had backstabbed BCs. He had also alleged that MLC seats were being given to rich people in the party.

Rao appeared to have reconciled following the intervention of some senior party leaders like Nama Nageswara Rao and Sujana Chowdary and telephonic talk he had with Naidu. He even met Naidu during the last leg of walkathon and wanted an assurance that he would be sent to Lok Sabha from Anakapalle but as he could not get any assurance, he did not participate in the meeting organized to mark the end of the padayatra at Visakhapatnam.

Sources said with Union minister of State for Tourism K Chiranjeevi arriving in Visakhapatnam on Saturday to lay the foundation for the beach corridor, there is a speculation that Dadi will meet Chiranjeevi.

Incidentally, another dissident leader and former minister Kadiam Srihari from Telangana Region also met Naidu on Thursday. Srihari too has been sulking in the party. Srihari has been feeling that he was not getting due importance in the party. Talking to media Srihari said that no significance should be attached to the meeting. "I met my party president that's all," he said. Asked if he was satisfied with the talks, he said he would not like to make any comment now. "I will speak after two days," he added.

Srihari had stayed away from TDP president's massive public meeting held at Visakhapatnam on the occasion of the conclusion of his Vasthunna Meekosam Padayatra. He said he did not attend the meeting as he was disturbed with the recent developments in the party.

He was also not present at the Shamshabad airport to receive Naidu on his return. All these developments led to speculations that Srihari would quit the TDP. However, on Monday he stated that he would not quit TDP and there was a conspiracy by some vested interests to send him out.