Naidu begins bypoll exercises

Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday began an exercise to ensure that his party does not face a repeat of the drubbing it got in the recently concluded byelections to seven Assembly seats.

He convened a series of meetings with party functionaries to ensure an impressive showing in the coming bypolls to 18 Assembly and the Nellore Lok Sabha segments by August end.

Three of the TD candidates in the seven segments had lost their deposits and the party lost in all the seven seats it contested from.

In the next byelections, 17 Assembly and the Nellore Lok Sabha seats fall in the Seemandhra region of the state where the party is pitted against its traditional archrival, the Congress and the new threat, the YSR Congress. The other seat, Parkal is in Telangana.

The fears of an exodus of leaders and workers from the party to other parties can turn into a reality unless the TD puts up an impressive show in the forthcoming bypolls.

Taking this into account, Mr Naidu has convened meetings with party leaders from each of the segments that are going for bypolls.

He will meet leaders from Polavaram on March 25, followed by leaders from Narasannapet on March 26, Rajampet on March 27 and Macherla on March 28.

Meetings with leaders from other segments will be finalised soon.