Telugu Desam Party
TELUGU DESAM PARTY | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | N. Chandrababu Naidu |
| Founder | Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Headquarters | Road No.2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad-500033 |
| Ideology | Regionalist, Fiscally Conservative |
| Alliance | NDA (2004-2009) TF (2009-present) |
| Website | |
| telugudesamparty.org | |
Telugu Desam Party (Telugu :తెలుగు దేశం Party for Telugu Land and people) or TDP is a regional political party in India's Andhra Pradesh state. It was founded by former Telugu film star N.T. Rama Rao on March 29 1982. Mr. Rama Rao wanted an alternative to the ruling Congress Party in the state.
In the 8th Lok Sabha 1984, it was the second largest party with 30 members.
NTR's era
NTR, Who is also known as ANNA (elder brother), toured the state extensively in what was called Chaitanya Ratham (literally - a Chariot which spreads awareness), his "election vehicle", and made use of the immense popularity of his on-screen movie image (his image in roles of Hindu mythological dieties- Rama, Krishna etc) to win the next election. The party was voted into power in a record nine months after its establishment on March 29, 1982. He became the Chief minister of AP by winning 202 seats out of 294. TDP also won 30 (out of 42) Lok Sabha seats in the 1984 Indian elections. This made TDP the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as the Indian National Congress won more than 400 (out of about 500) seats to win the election. This was the first time that any regional party became the largest opposition party in India.
The TDP was voted to power in the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1983. During his first term, Rama Rao introduced many populist measures like selling a kilogram of rice for Rs.2.
In 1984, one of the ministers in his cabinet, Nadendla Bhaskar Rao dethronwed NTR with the help of then-governor Ramlal, while NTR was on foreign trip. A never-seen-before revolt shook the state and after one month NTR proved his majority and re-elected as Chief Minister. Following this incident, NTR cancelled the assembly and went for fresh elections in 1985 where he won landslide majority of 205 seats out of 294.
In 1989, NTR lost in assembly elections, but the National Front led by him won in the national elections and V.P.Singh became the prime minister. In this period he played a significant role in national politics by pledging support to the then prime Ministers V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar (who formed coalition governments in the absence of absolute majority for their respective parties).
TDP returned to power in 1994 by winning 219 Assembly seats out of 294 seats. Rama Rao was elected to be the Chief Minister for the second time, but his governing cabinet and family suffered from what many political observers saw, as "unconstitutional interference in affairs" by his second wife. In 1995, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, finance minister and the third son-in-law of NTR (who is married to NTR's daughter- Bhuvaneswari, through his(NTR's) first wife (Bhasava Tharakam)) overthrew Rama Rao's government by gathering a majority of the MLAs in September 1995. The overwhelming consensus against his group led the Election Commission to recognize a break-away faction under the party's original name. NTR, the founder of the party, had to rename what was left of the party as "NTR TDP". He vowed to go to the people, seeking a fresh mandate after this humiliation. However, within a year, he died, on January 18,1996.
On October 9, 2008, TDP announced a major shift in its policy towards Telangana. The politburo of TDP, after long rounds of discussion, decided that it would favour a separate state for Telangana fearing that it would lose the elections. Previously, TDP strongly opposed the separate state as it stood for a unified Andhra Pradesh.
Back to basics
TDP lost its power to Congress in the 2004 and 2009 State elections.It was a great win for the Congress in last 25 years. TDP is back to basics and is concentrating on strengthening its core constituency.
See also
References
External links
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