Former Union Minister Kishore Chandra Deo set to quit TDP over Naidu ‘cosying up to BJP’

Former Union Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Kishore Chandra Deo is set to quit the party, accusing TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu of aligning with the BJP.

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.

Mr. Deo said the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the TDP were both cosying up to the BJP, which had not kept a single promise made to the State. “The BJP claims that it believes in cooperative federalism, but such change of heart clearly shows that it practises coercive federalism,” he said. The State electorate are clearly against the BJP, and the TDP warming up to it showed that Mr. Naidu has something to hide, he added. “It is deeply unfortunate that the two main parties [the TDP and the YSRCP] are competing with each other to curry favour with the BJP despite the fact that the national party doesn’t have any considerable presence in the State and has done nothing for Andhra in the last 10 years,” Mr. Deo added.

About his next move, he said he would like to wait. “Politics is not just about winning or losing. I cannot, directly or indirectly, contribute to the Amit Shah-Narendra Modi regime,” he said.