The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is looking to induct another member of founder N.T. Rama Rao’s family.
After Nara Lokesh—grandson of the legendary actor and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh—successfully established himself, another grandson Daggubati Hitesh, son of veteran politicians D. Purandareswari and D. Venkateswara Rao, is to be inducted into the TDP shortly, senior party leaders told ThePrint.
Purandareswari is Rama Rao’s daughter, while his other daughter Bhuvaneswari is married to Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu. Nara Lokesh is their son.
As Purandareswari and her husband mend relations with Naidu and his family over the decades-old political backstabbing incident, the families’ reconciliation has apparently paved the way for Hitesh’s induction.
A 1995 internal coup in the TDP staged by Naidu had led to the ouster of Rama Rao from power.
Former Andhra BJP president Purandareswari and her husband have earlier stated that Hitesh’s political career would be paramount as Venkateswara Rao had decided to step away from politics for good, with Purandareswari seeking a larger role in national politics.
Hitesh had joined the YSR Congress Party in 2019, but quit within a short period, apparently over contesting polls from the Parchur constituency.
The question of Rajbhar’s social media posts
UP cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has been consistently targeting Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav through his social media posts, often on a daily basis. In one, he claimed that the SP could face a split similar to the one witnessed in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that lost power in West Bengal this year.
The SP, however, dismissed the claim and countered that it is Rajbhar’s own party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), that is facing internal challenges. SP leaders allege that four of SBSP’s six MLAs in UP are in touch with their own party. They also point to SBSP’s Mau MLA Abbas Ansari, son of late Mukhtar Ansari, who has been seen displaying an SP flag on his vehicle. Another MLA is said to be doing the same.
SP functionaries have also raised questions about the style of Rajbhar’s social media posts. According to one SP leader, many of Rajbhar’s posts begin with phrases such as “suno Akhilesh…” or “Arey Akhilesh…” and have followed a similar format, language and presentation in the last 20 days.
“There appears to be a pattern,” the leader claimed, alleging that the posts resemble content prepared through a coordinated communication strategy.
Some SP leaders have further alleged that Rajbhar’s social media account is being managed by a new PR agency engaged by the UP government.
Sources in the state government acknowledged that a PR agency had been tasked with assisting ministers’ teams in content dissemination and communication. However, they denied any specific instructions directing Rajbhar to target the SP, saying only that certain ministers had been identified for more active political messaging.
But Akhilesh has asked his close functionaries to find out who is writing the script for Rajbhar.
The Sanjay Dina Patil shocker
For the past year, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leaders had been trying to convince Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MPs to switch sides, according to party insiders. Over a period of time, four Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs were ready to switch but Omraje Nimbalkar and Sanjay Dina Patil remained non-committal for long, before caving in last week.
A party insider close to the Thackerays said they were most shocked about Patil because he used to be constantly in touch with Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav. On Aaditya’s birthday on 13 June, celebrations were held at Matoshree, the Thackeray residence. Patil made Aaditya wait to cut the cake.
“He has this habit of coming late to every function. Even that day, he asked us to wait and he was the last one to turn up for the party,” said a Matoshree insider.
Therefore, at the crucial meeting of MPs called by the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Delhi last week, it had lost hope from five MPs when they didn’t turn up—confirming their breach—but kept waiting for Patil, hoping he was late as usual.
The party leadership soon realised that he too had joined the rebel camp.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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