Telugu Desam Party may suffer more defections in Telengana

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party, struggling to regain the ground it lost in Telangana, fears more defections by its lawmakers towards the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi after TDP's firebrand legislator Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana anti-corruption bureau sleuths on corruption charges.

On Sunday afternoon, the ACB sleuths arrested Revanth and sent him to judicial custody for allegedly attempting to bribe a nominated legislator to vote for the TDP's candidate in elections for the legislative council. The arrest of Revanth, TDP's deputy floor leader in Telangana Assembly, comes as a rude shock to the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh and dents image of their President N. Chandrababu Naidu who boasts of clean and graft free politics. Opposition parties in AP and the ruling TRS in Telangana demanded that cases be slapped against Naidu for a detailed probe into the episode as Revanth allegedly told the nominated legislator of approaching him at the behest of his boss.

While TRS leaders and cadres, who find Revanth a thorn their flesh, went into celebra tions mode after he was nabbed under corruption charges, the beleaguered TDP cadres plunged into distress following the embarrassment suffered by their party.

Opposition parties in Telangana and AP demanded widening the scope of investigation into the cash-for-vote episode.

While the YSR Congress in AP demanded probing into the role of chief minister Naidu behind Revanth's attempts to bribe the nominated legislator, Congress in Telangana sought to expand the probe to include several defections in India's newest state over last year. Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Congress' working president in Telangana, accused chief ministers of two Telugu speaking states ­ K Chandrasekhara Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu ­ of stooping to filthy levels in encouraging defections and cross voting. “Both KCR and Naidu are sailing in the same boat. Instead of focussing on development in the two states for which people gave them clear mandate, the two chief ministers are busy resorting to undemocratic practices of encouraging defections in a bid to consolidate their strengths."