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Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu will launch a padayatra (foot march) from Hindupur in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh tomorrow, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
The Leader of Opposition is expected to cover over 2,000 km in 117 days covering about 13 out of 23 districts of the state in the first round of “Vastunna...mee kosam” (I am coming....for you) yatra.
Hindupur is a stronghold of the TDP from where party founder-president N T Rama Rao was previously elected to the state Assembly. Hence, Naidu chose Hindupur as the starting point of his yatra that will culminate on Republic Day.
“This yatra is my responsibility to the people of AP who have honoured me for the last 30 years. I will create awareness about a whole range of issues like corruption, inept rule of the Congress, etc. Regaining power is not the motive of this yatra,” Naidu told newsmen on the eve of the event.
“I am testing myself by undertaking the foot march for such a long duration, which no other political leader in the country has done. Its arduous but I am ready for it,” the 62-year-old former Chief Minister said.
In 2007-08, the TDP chief undertook a state-wide tour Mee Kosam (for you) ahead of the 2009 elections but could not return to power despite forging a grand alliance with the Left parties and the TRS. He also undertook a foot march (not full length, though) for the farmers’ cause last year but that did not ostensibly pay any political dividends.
Now, the 30-year-old party is facing a much bigger threat to its political existence with the Telangana factor on one hand and the Jagan factor on the other eroding its base in the three regions of the state.
Naidu is looking to win back the trust of people as he is clearly suffering from “lack of credibility”, a fact that senior TDP leaders acknowledge in private.
He, however, said crisis was not new to TDP. “Our party faced many a crisis in its 30 years of existence. But the party emerged stronger after every crisis,” he pointed out.
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