Inclusive growth Maha mantra

The 35th Mahanadu of the ruling TDP took off on the Andhra University campus on a colourful note here on Friday with a clarion call for a balanced regional growth in the State without giving any room for separatist tendencies.

The high-profiled event showcased a unity in cultural ethos with the artistes from both the Telugu states swayed the audience with a range of performances such as folk dances and songs reflecting the lifestyles of people pan Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Party central committee president N Chandrababu Naidu, in his yellow trousers, was received by Telangana party women wing leaders with traditional ‘bonalu’, followed by tribals from the north coastal Andhra region with ‘kommu dance’. More than-the-life-size cutouts of party founder NT Rama Rao, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his young son and IT minister Nara Lokesh provided a foreground to the conclave.

The otherwise hot temperature in the Steel City turned cool with the clouds overcast as the scheduled time for the start of Mahanadu approached, giving much relief to the delegates who descended from every nook and corner of the two Telugu states.

The summit got down to its business with Naidu’s call to the party rank and file to realise the people’s aspirations. “People want governance free of corruption, welfare and development. If we deliver this agenda, people will continue to be with our party,” he said.

Chandrababu said gone were the days which patronised ideology driven politics. “What we need in the present context is pragmatic politics,” he said while quoting the phrase “---that it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice” coined by Chinese reformer Deng Xioping . Naidu advocated technology as a tool to wipe out corruption from public life while citing certain e-initiatives his government has introduced in public distribution system.

A draft copy of resolutions to be adopted at the conclave seeks to focus on “decentralisation of development” close on the heels of a programme convened by the Uttarandhra Development Forum in Visakhapatnam with concerned citizens and intellectuals in the run up to the Mahanadu with a request to address backwardness in the region.

The draft proposes to develop Rayalaseema region by promoting defence, electronic and hardware industries, pharma in Uttarandhra region and port-led growth coupled with promotion of aquaculture in the central coastal region.

It charged the YSRC with inciting separatist movement by cashing in on certain ‘development gaps’ in the backward Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra regions.

Although the party chief maintained tactical silence on his BJP alliance partner, the party leadership from Telangana region expressed a strong wish to forge TDP in their region as an independent force without ‘tailing’ the BJP. The TS party general secretary Amarnadh expressed the will of the rank and file to this effect while submitting an annual report of the party activities in the face of disharmony in the alliance camp surfaced in Telangana in putting up a united fight against the TRS regime.

Lokesh obviously became a centre of attraction at the conference. Even as he spent most of the morning session in a corner off the dais, it became a selfie session for youth and lower-rung cadres. When Naidu was engrossed galvanising party ranks with his marathon inaugural address, Lokesh was seen allowing cadres to touch his feet, taking selfies with him and indulging in an informal chat with his admirers from Uttarandhra region.