Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam has started “doing a KCR”, who had ignited passions by invoking Telangana state pride during the just-concluded polls when the involvement of TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the campaign became apparent.

If the utterances by TD leaders in the past two days are anything to go by, the ruling party has decided to ignite passions in the name of Andhra pride, which they believe will work against the Opposition YSRC and defeat it in the upcoming polls a few months away.





The TD has started digging out statements made by Telangana leaders, including Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, against Andhra Pradesh to show YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in poor light for having joined hands with the TRS to stitch the Federal Front.

Mr Rao successfully tapped the Telangana pride issue in the Assembly polls by targeting the main Opposition Congress, saying it had joined hands with the Andhra-origin Naidu and his party, the TD, which worked against Telangana’s interests before the state’s bifurcation and also in the last four and a half years. Mr Rao returned with more seats than his party had bagged in 2014.

After TRS working president K. T. Rama Rao met Mr Reddy at the latter’s residence in Hyderabad on Wednesday to discuss a federal front, TD leaders have started paying back in the same coin.

From party spokespersons to ministers and other leaders, everybody has begun targeting Mr Reddy. Mr Naidu, who held a teleconference with party leaders on Wednes-day, questioned the motive behind Mr Reddy meeting Mr Rama Rao.

“People in Andhra Pradesh should give a thought to the YSRC-TRS meeting,” sports minister Kollu Ravindra said. “Jagan met TRS leaders who were ridiculing AP till a few days ago. In the past, KCR had said investments will fly into Andhra Pradesh if special category status is given to us. Mr Rao now says that Special Category status for AP is nothing but opportunistic politics,” he said.