Former Union Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Kishore Chandra Deo is all set to quit the party, which he joined in 2019. Confirming to The Hindu on Wednesday that he will tender his resignation in a day or two, Mr. Deo accused TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu of cosying up to the BJP ever since he came out on bail. Mr. Naidu was arrested in September last year for alleged corruption in connection with the multi-crore Skill Development Corporation case.
Mr. Deo, who was the Union Tribal Affairs Minister in the Congress-led UPA-II government, had joined the TDP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election after facing a crushing defeat in the 2014 poll, which came just after the State’s bifurcation into Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh State. A six-term MP (five in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha) Mr. Deo fought the 2019 Lok Sabha poll on a TDP ticket from the Araku seat, which he held between 2009 and 2014, and lost.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Deo said he joined the TDP at a time when the party had walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) questioning the BJP’s indifference towards Andhra Pradesh. “I joined the TDP with the aim to work towards defeating the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine at the Centre. But that cause is losing ground, considering the TDP has backed all draconian laws brought by the Modi government in Parliament ever since the 2019 results. This shows that Mr. Naidu does not have any reservations about the BJP’s principles or ideology,” Mr. Deo said, adding that a number of issues, including the non-fulfilment of the demand for a special category status for Andhra Pradesh, for which the TDP had quit the NDA alliance, still remain unresolved.
