TDP will play key role at Centre in 2019: Chandrababu Naidu

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday the TDP would play a key role at the Centre after 2019 elections. Ruling himself out as a contender for the post of prime minister, Naidu told partymen at the Telangana Mahanadu here that TDP played a key role in the formation of the National Front and United Front governments at the Centre.

He said while the late NTR played crucial role in the formation of the National Front government, he was instrumental in the formation of United Front government. In 2019 too, TDP will play kingmaker and predicted that regional parties would be the key to government formation next year, he said. “I was responsible for making H D Deva Gowda prime minister in 1996. I am not aspiring to become PM now. I got an offer to become PM twice 20 years ago, but turned it down and decided to serve then united Andhra



Pradesh. Now too, I want to serve Telugus,” the TDP chief said.

Naidu also made it clear he attended the swearing-in ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy despite him heading a coalition government that includes Congress after receiving an invite from then CM-designate. “In Bengaluru, I held discussions with leaders of various parties. After 1996, when regional parties came together to form a government, no such experiment was done till Wednesday. We will meet again and prepare an action plan,” he said.

The TDP chief also alleged the NDA government was misusing the Governor’s system in Tamil Nadu and tried the same trick in Karnataka. “In the Karantaka elections, BJP took the help of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, who is facing corruption charges and is taking the help of YSRCP in AP,” he said.