Hyderabad: It is official: No Mahanadu this year. For the first time since its founding in 1983 by N T Rama Rao, the TDP has decided not to hold its annual conclave this year. Speaking sombrely after the party’s extended state executive meeting at NTR Bhavan on Tuesday, Chandrababu Naidu said, “We could not celebrate Mahanadu in May because there were byelections. If we decide to organise it now, we would need at least three more months. So the party felt that Mahanadu 2012 should be clubbed with Mahandu 2013."
As per party convention, the Mahanadu ought to have been held during May 27-29, May 28 being Rama Rao’s birth anniversary. But those dates this year clashed with the byelection campaign for 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat. So the conclave was put off until after the byelections.
But given that the party received a drubbing in the byelections, there was little enthusiasm for the stocktaking conclave when the party executive commenced its two-day sitting Monday. Party leaders admitted in private that the mood in the party is despondent right now.
In Telangana, where the party used to once boast of an elaborate network of dedicated cadres, the party has bitten the dust in byelection after byelection. That cup of woe was topped with a poor show in the byelections in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema last month.
Party leaders felt that Mahanadu ought to be a celebration, but they were unable to summon up any joy right now. Moreover, the defection to the YSR Congress of Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao alias Nani, dampened spirits further, especially because he represents Gudivada in the Assembly, a seat once held by late N T Rama Rao. One TDP leader said, “That constituency is sacred to us, and it doesn’t feel right that it no more belongs to us."
Last year’s Mahanadu was not a good experience for the TDP as it marked the beginning of the intensification of the cold war between NTR’s son N Harikrishna and sonin- law Chandrababu Naidu.
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