The internal bickering in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) camp in Anantapur came to the fore as party MLA representing Uravakonda Payyavula Keshav, Hindupur district president B.K. Parthasarathy and Anantapur Urban former MLA Vykuntam Prabhakar Chowdary launched a tirade against Tadipatri Municipal Chairman J.C. Prabhakar Reddy and his family members at a public meeting on Saturday, in an apparent reply to the former Tadipatri MLA targeting party’s Polit Bureau member Kalava Srinivasulu .
Mr. Prabhakar Chowdary took strong exception to some followers of Mr. Prabhakar Reddy holding him responsible for the defeat of the TDP candidates in all municipal wards and the margin of defeat increasing from 28,900 during the Assembly elections to more than 50,000 during the municipal polls.
“It was your brother J.C. Diwakar Reddy, who as the Anantapur MP, had been poking his nose into the affairs of all MLAs since 2014 to build his own private army of the people disgruntled with the TDP, which should not be continued. The Saturday’s meeting was not the party’s private forum to discuss internal differences on opinions,” said Mr. Prabhakar Chowdary. He alleged that he had left the Congress in 1995 due to ‘such autocratic behaviour’ of the JC brothers in the district.
Retorting to the comments made by Mr. Prabhakar Reddy at Saturday’s meeting, the former MLA said the in-charge persons in each Assembly constituency were taking care of the party cadres, and that he needed to bother about the Tadipatri cadres only.
At Uravakonda, Mr. Payyavula Keshav held a meeting with the party leaders. He told the media that the Saturday’s meeting was held specifically to discuss the issues pertaining to the rights of the State on the Krishna water with the top leaders and it was supposed to be held as per party president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s direction.
Party image
“All the constituency in-charges are taking care of the party cadres. Mr. Prabhakar Reddy targeting Kalava Srinivasulu was in bad taste as everyone in the party was happy with Mr. Srinivasulu,” he said.
Mr. Parthasarathy too took objection to Mr. Prabhakar Reddy’s comments and wanted him to exercise restraints while speaking in public so that the party’s image was not maligned. “There are differences of opinions in any party and those need to be resolved democratically,” he said.
