Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has earned the notoriety of “back stabber” for dethroning his father-in-law, TDP founder-president N T Rama Rao, in a midnight coup.

The TDP leaders tried to convince the people that he had to revolt against NTR only to prevent the latter’s wife Lakshmi Parvathi from usurping power.

But not many people know that Naidu used to pamper even Lakshmi Parvathi to make her believe that he is a staunch loyalist of NTR.

“Such was the nature of Naidu that he even used to open the car door for Lakshmi Parvathi, whenever she wanted to go out.

While none of NTR’s sons and daughters entertained her, Naidu was the only person who tried to get into her good books, so that NTR never suspected any foul play from him,” said NTR’s elder son-in-law and former minister Daggubati Venkateshwar Rao.

In an interview to a television channel, Daggubati admitted that he also had a role in “back-stabbing” NTR, but had given clean chit to the latter’s daughters Purandeshwari and Bhuvaneshwari.

“During the coup, Naidu had promised that I would be made deputy chief minister and Nandamuri Harikrishna as party president. But he never kept his promise, as he thought I would become a thorn in his flesh,” he said.

Daggubati revealed that right from the beginning, Naidu had the ambition of becoming the chief minister.

“I never had any such plan. So, I don’t envy Naidu,” he said.

He predicted that junior NTR had the capability of becoming a mass leader.

“But I am not sure he will enter politics. At the same time, Balakrishna also has the ability to become the leader. Otherwise, he would not have come into politics. People will decide whether Balakrishna or Lokesh is the real heir of NTR,” he said.