NTR’s family rallies behind Naidu
Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Hyderabad, Sept. 7: In a desperate bid to counter Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam in the elections, the Telugu Desam president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu has roped in family members of the party founder and his late father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao. Sending a strong message that the Nandamuri clan would take active part in Telugu Desam Party activities in the coming days, the party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu held a meeting with them at his Jubilee Hills residence.
The meeting was attended by three reigning film stars, Balakrishna, NTR and Kalyan Ram and Harikrishna who is also a polit bureau member of the party. Though neither Mr. Naidu nor the stars were prepared to talk to the media, party sources said the meeting discussed ways of reaching out to the large section people through rallies in different parts of the State. The debating point was the timing of their first public appearance and whether they should make it jointly or separately across the State. It was also decided that Balakrishna should address the first of these rallies to be organised shortly.
All the family members have also agreed to participate in "Yuva Gharjana", a TD youth-wing meeting, at Guntur, later this month. Mr Naidu hosted a lunch for the four members of the NTR family at his residence on Sunday.
Balakrishna, whose daughter was married to Mr Naidu’s son last year, is reported to have played a key role in facilitating the crucial meeting. This was Mr Naidu’s second meeting with the NTR family members in the past four months. They discussed the campaign schedule, public meetings and unveiling of NTR statues at different places during their two-hour meeting.
They decided that Balakrishna should not contest in the coming elections, as it would limit his time to tour around the state. At one stage, all the members requested had Balaiah to contest from Rayalaseema, where the actor is believed to have a considerable fan following. However, after a detailed discussion, there was a consensus that Balaiah should not be forced to contest. Sources close to the NTR family disclosed that Mr Naidu has offered seats to those recommended by Balakrishna and Junior NTR. It may be recalled that the TD ticket to Kodali Nani to contest from Gudivada in the last elections was made possible after Junior NTR entered the picture.
Apparently considerable time was spent on working out a strategy to try and checkmate the influence of the film star and Praja Rajyam leader, Chiranjeevi, who has emerged as another political rival after Congress.
Sources said that Union minister of state and Balakrishna and Harikrishna’s sister, Ms Purandareswari had adviced her brothers not to join Mr Naidu and reminded them of the "attract, use and throw" policy adopted by Mr Naidu in the past before they made up their mind.
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