TDP plans to spread its wings into a national party

HYDERABAD: The TDP leadership is planning to convert the party into a national party in the coming days so as to expand beyond Andhra Pradesh.

The party leadership will submit an application to the Central Election Commission requesting it to suggest appropriate measures for the TDP to be converted into a national party after June 2, on which day Andhra Pradesh will be formally split into Telangana and AP states.

Soon after that the party leadership will start setting up units in neighbouring states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha, where Telugu-speaking people live in large numbers.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is expected to make a formal announcement to this effect during the party's annual event Mahanadu, scheduled to take place on May 27 and 28 at Gandipet on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

'We are planning to convert our party into a national party to play a key role on the national political scenario,' party senior leader Kambhampati Ramamohan Rao, who looks after TDP's national affairs, told Express.

According to sources, the logic behind TDP leadership's decision to make an announcement at the ensuing Mahanadu saying that the TDP will be a national party is that this move would instil confidence among the party leaders and cadre in Telangana, who are in a state of disenchantment following 'so-so' performance in the general elections.

By converting the party into a national one, the party leadership wants to create a sense of optimism among Telangana TDP leaders and workers that their party would bounce back in the new state by 2019 polls.

In fact, the TDP leadership is worried that though the party's position in Seemandhra is secure and it has no political threat in the near future, it feels that the party's existence might be challenged by the TRS, the Congress and the BJP in 2019 polls in Telangana State.

Meanwhile, after converting the TDP into a national political outfit, the party leadership wants to field its candidates in the future elections in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha, from segments dominated by Telugu-speaking people.

The TDP has already got its unit outside Andhra Pradesh in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where people from North Coastal Andhra live in large numbers.

People from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts migrated to the islands in the 1950s in search of livelihood. The TDP had earlier contested municipal elections in Port Blair.