TDP hopes to roar with Yuva Garjana

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Chandrababu Naidu are hoping to get back into the reckoning with ‘Yuva Garjana’ (roar of the youth), a massive public meeting, being organised at Nagarjuna Nagar in Guntur district on Wednesday. It’s a do or die meeting for TDP, the success of which will set the tone for the coming elections.

Film star Chiranjeevi and his fledgling Praja Rajyam Party are making waves in the state. While the Congress appears unfazed, the TDP has been hardest hit with desertions and low morale in the rank and file. With the NTR clan in tow, Naidu is making a valiant attempt to restore the party’s lost glory and regain lost ground.

Touted as the mother of all rallies, at least 15 lakh people, mostly youth, are expected to attend the meeting at the 150 acre land opposite the Acharya Nagarjuna University. The meeting, being held to mark 25 years of TDP, would be preceded by a motorcycle rally of more than 10,000 vehicles. Artists are working overtime to create a huge stage which would resemble a film set. The entire NTR clan is expected to be present at the meet except Junior NTR, who is apparently making some demands to make an appearance. NTR’s sons, Balakrishna and Hari Krishna, and their sons, Kalyam Ram and Tarak Ratna, would be present at the meeting. The party has spent lakhs on preparing huge cut-outs of NTR and other TDP leaders.

Large scale preparations are on at the venue on the Vijayawada-Guntur highway. Four choppers have been hired, a dozen trains have been requisitioned and more than 900 state transport buses have been hired to ferry workers to Guntur from all parts of the state.

Senior TDP leader and Politburo member Y Ramakrishnudu who is in-charge of the arrangements said that Yuva Garjana would be the biggest public meeting ever in the state. The party has hired almost all hotels and guesthouses in Guntur and Vijayawada to accommodate its leaders.

The ‘Yuva Garjana’ meeting on which the party is banking so much hit some roadblocks initially. Junior NTR, grandson of NTR, considered to be the star attraction at the meeting, apparently came up with some demands for making an appearance. Party leaders said that the young actor is putting pressure on the party to give the ticket for Ganavaram Assembly seat in Krishna district to his close friend, Vamsi Mohan,...

Source: indianexpress.com