Ever since the Telugu Desam Party faced a humiliating defeat in the recent assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, there has been a demand from within and outside the party circles that it was time to bring young blood into the party, especially popular actors like Jr N T Rama Rao.
The talk has picked up momentum after Jr NTR came to NTR ghat on May 28 to pay homage to his grandfather and TDP founder N T Rama Rao on the latter’s birth anniversary.He issued big advertisements in the newspapers praising NTR and also instructed his followers to take up the responsibility of maintaining the cleanliness at NTR ghat regularly.
It was YSR Congress party MLA Kodali Nani who said only Junior NTR could save the TDP and if he did not do it, the party would disappear soon.Adding to this bandwagon was the tweet of maverick film director Ram Gopal Varma who also suggested that it was time Jr NTR take over the TDP.
“If Tarak does that, all people will immediately forget TDP’s disastrous failure. NTR’s grandson can be the only saviour and if he has any respect for his grandfather he should immoderately save TDP Jai NTR Jai TARAK,” he tweeted.He further said if Jr NTR had any respect for his grandfather, he should save the TDP founded by NTR “from the man who backstabbed him then and his son who is front-stabbing it now.”
However, one wonders whether Jr NTR would take such a risk, especially after seeing the fate of Jana Sena Party president and popular actor Pawan Kalyan.Jr NTR might draw huge crowds to his meetings once again, but they would not vote for the TDP just because of him.
In fact, Jr NTR campaigned for the TDP in 2009 itself, but he could hardly make any impact on its prospects, as it lost the elections for a second successive term.But who knows, Jr NTR might even take that risk and take a plunge into politics. Whether Naidu would tolerate him is a million dollar question.