On the 25th anniversary of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that his party would now pursue a “pro-poor” agenda, in sharp contrast to his earlier agenda of aggressive economic reforms.Naidu said his earlier agenda had “alienated farmers and the poor”, and had resulted in his party losing in the last Assembly elections. Naidu launched a two-month long celebration for the silver-jubilee of his party with a rally at the Nizam College grounds in Hyderabad. The rally was attended by thousands from across the state, including party workers and supporters. Speaking at the rally, the former CM acknowledged that the aggressive economic reforms pursued by him during his government from 1995 to 2004 had not done much for the rural population. He called upon his party workers to work for the benefit of the poor, and to “go back to the ideals upon with NTR had founded the party”. He said that NTR’s slogan, “Society is my temple and the poor are my gods”, was still relevant, and that the party would be reformed in the following years to reflect this slogan. But Naidu did not announce a stand on the Telangana issue. The party is against the formation of a new Telangana state. He said the party was “watching the political scenario carefully and would announce a stand at an appropriate time”. Naidu’s new agenda is seen as preparations for the 2009 elections. In fact, he asked party workers at the rally to work to bring the TDP back to power in the next elections.
