TDP ‘shocked’: Naidu friend among 2 who switched sides

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu who camped in New Delhi since Friday to seek the support of other regional parties against the UPA...

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu who camped in New Delhi since Friday to seek the support of other regional parties against the UPA and forge new alliances before the vote of confidence faced acute embarrassment when two of his trusted MPs voted in favour of the UPA.

TDP MP of Chittoor Adikesavulu Naidu, a trusted friend and aide of Naidu, and Nagarkurnool MP M Jagannath defied the party whip and voted for the UPA. The crossover has jolted the TDP leadership with an angry Naidu calling for a meeting of party leaders at the residence of TDP parliamentary party leader K Yerran Naidu. The TDP chief fumed and fretted at this betrayal, even as he was making attempts to get new partners to join him.

Adikesavulu Naidu is a former Congressman and served as treasurer of the AICC when P V Narasimha Rao was PM. During the same time, he quit the Congress and joined TDP. He was patronised by Naidu, who gave him a ticket to contest from Chittoor in 2004, which he won.

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Adikesavulu is also a millionaire liquor baron with extensive interests in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He also has sugar mills in Andhra Pradesh. Naidu stuck his neck out in 2003 for Adikesavulu when he appointed him as the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD). The appointment was met with protests, as Adikesavulu is associated with liquor. While Naidu belongs to the Kamma community, Adikesavalu is a Kapu. He recently remarked that he might support film star Chiranjeevi, a Kapu, if he launches a party. Though other TDP leaders warned Naidu after such comments, Adikesavulu got away with it.

According to Yerran Naidu, it seems probable that Adikesavulu wants to quit the TDP, rejoin the Congress and become a Rajya Sabha member. Sources in Hyderabad said Adikesavulu is also worried about his business interests in the state with the TDP out of power.

But as irksome as his lack of loyalty to him may have been for Naidu, the bigger shock for the TDP leadership is the defection of Nagarkurnool MP M Jagannath.

“More than Adikesavulu we are shocked by Jagannath doing this. We cannot think of anything but the lure of money,” said a senior leader. Jagannath is a medical practitioner and a third-time MP. He is a member of the Indo-China Parliamentary committee. Jagannath was also the chairperson of the Indian Medical Parliamentary Forum till recently. In his first term as MP he was on the Monitoring Committee of Chief Whips and Whips Recommendations.

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The TDP has five MPs in the Lok Sabha — P Chalapathi Rao (Anakapalli), D K Adikesavulu Naidu (Chittor) M Jagannath (Nagarkurnool), K Yerran Naidu (Srikakulam) and Dayakar Rao (Warangal).

This is the second time that TDP MPs have defied the party whip and favoured the Congress. In March 1992, six TDP MPs supported the P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress Government.