NTR FAMILY RATTLES WITH 'NTR STATUE POLITICS'

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

By having a statue of the legendary NTR sculpted and invitations sent, Union Minister of State Daggubati Purandeswari stirred the proverbial Hornet’s nest. She got the statue made in Tenali and Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar will unveil the statue. 
Meanwhile, the TDP announced that it had not received any invite to participate in the function. A delegation led by Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party Nama Nageswara Rao would call on the Speaker and express their resentment at not sending an invite to TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

If the Speaker’s office comes up with a proof that it had indeed sent an invite to Naidu, the delegation would have to eat crow. Else, the Speaker’s office could still send an invite in a jiffy and have the TDP’s frayed tempers placated. Even if it doesn’t, it can just take a political shelter.

Whatever it is, the installation of NTR statue is a win-win for the Congress and Purandeshwari and an embarrassment to Naidu. His brother-in-law and Purandeshwari’s husband Daggubati Venkateshwara Rao promptly came up with a statement that they had tried to call up Naidu and the latter had not picked up the phone.

When Naidu was wielding influence at the Centre, he had blocked the installation of the statue and awarding Bharat Ratna to NTR. However much the TDP cries hoarse on this issue and makes use of its friendly media to convince people that the credit should go to the TDP for getting NTR’s statue installed on the premises of the Parliament, two issues would surely haunt the TDP.

1. What did the TDP do to get the statue of NTR installed on the Parliament premises? Interestingly, the party had its nominee GMC Balayogi as the Speaker of Lok Sabha. The TDP remained influential at the Centre since 1996 to 2004, but certainly to keep NTR’s wife Lakshmi Parvathi at bay, the party never made an attempt to secure the honours to the legendary leader.

Meanwhile, the Congress is trying, nearly successfully, to highlight that NTR was not a leader of the TDP at the time of his death. He was making arrangements for establishing his own party and had the Lion symbol registered for his proposed party. Several Congress leaders promptly ask one question: which party did NTR belong to at the time of his death.

Interestingly, the wife of NTR, Lakshmi Parvathi, was also not invited to the event and she said she would write to the Lok Sabha speaker and Sonia Gandhi.

The TDP might stay away, while the family members of NTR, who got invited, would attend the programme on Tuesday. For now, Purandeshwari scored a brownie point over the TDP.