Andhra Pradesh

TDP MP refuses post but denies looking for saffron pastures

K Srinivas alias Nani, the Telugu Desam MP from Vijayawada continues to embarrass the party leadership. Days after he met BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur and called him his “favorite politician”, Nani has refused to accept the party whip post in the Lok Sabha. He has conveyed to Naidu that he should “appoint someone else who is more capable and efficient” arguing that he is “not suitable to handle the responsibilities of such a big post”. 

It is a message dripping with sarcasm. A whip of a Parliamentary party with three MPs, one of them Nani, is certainly not a “big post”. Nani’s grouse reportedly is that Jaydev Galla, the Guntur MP was appointed the leader of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary party. Jaydev’s mother Galla Aruna Kumari is a member of the TDP Politburo, the highest decision making body of the party and Nani is trying to make the point that one family is cornering the cream, whatever little is left of it, in the party. 

Also K Rammohan Naidu, the Srikakulam MP was appointed the floor leader. Rammohan Naidu is junior to Nani both in age and politics.

Kesineni Nani (left) with Nitin Gadkari

Naidu has reached out to Nani in order to pacify him because he simply cannot afford to have a desertion soon after the election results. Nani has himself dismissed rumours that he is looking to migrate to the BJP. 

“I can say only one thing to those who are spreading these rumours. If Chandrababu Naidu will join the YSR Congress party, I will join the BJP. It is as good as that,” Nani told reporters. 

But anyone who understands the TDP ethic will tell you that it is completely out of place to praise anyone but Naidu as his “favorite politician”. Not only that. Nani even credited Gadkari and not Naidu, with having given “his 100 % support in the development of Vijayawada in the last five years”. 

With just three MPs and 23 MLAs in his kitty, Naidu’s Parliamentary party is extremely vulnerable to poaching. Not from the YSRCP but from the BJP that is looking to strengthen itself district by district, constituency by constituency in Andhra Pradesh. 

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