It is a foregone conclusion that TDP and BJP will contest Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation(GHMC) polls in alliance at the end of the year against the alliance of TRS and MIM. Indicating the continuance of the existing alliance with BJP, TDP Telangana unit president L Ramana said the present understanding between the two parties would continue. ” TDP-BJP is a winning combination,” he said.
Talking to Telugu360.com , after the taking oath as the president of Telangana state unit, Ramana recalled that how the two parties had won the elections for Hyderabad civic body. “So, I am confident that it will be a cakewalk for TDP-BJP combine in ensuing GHMC polls, if the two parties join hands,” he said. Ramana represented Jagitya Assembly constituency and for some time he was handloom and textile minister. However, at the advice of Naidu, he contested Lok Sabha polls won the Karimnagar seat. Ramana revealed that it was he who had persuaded his party boss Naidu to align with the saffron party during the 2014 general polls.
“I was the first one to moot the proposal of alliance with BJP. I requested party chief N Chandrababu Naidu to forge an alliance with the BJP, before the 2014 polls. The TDP-BJP alliance worked well in those polls. Even in the GHMC polls, our alliance will be a winning hands down,” he said. Going down the memory line, Ramana said in the 2002 elections, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had won the Mayor post in a direct election in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party which took the Deputy Mayor’s post. In the election, Ramana said, Majlis Ittehadul-e-Muslimeen (MIM) won 36 out of the 100 seats while TDP-BJP combine won 38 seats. Congress won 20. Of the remaining parties, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Majlis Bachao Tehreek won two seats each while Telangana Sadhana Samiti won one seat.
Coming from weavers community Karimnagar district, it will be an uphill task for Ramana to keep the yellow flag fly aloft given the TRS influence in the district. The soft-spoke Ramana has a non-controversial back ground which is not so a great virtue in days of money and muscle power. In a state where the TDP is being portrayed as the “Andhra Party”, rebuilding the Telugu Desam to expectations of party boss Chandrababu Naidu is not an easy task. But, a win in the GHMC election is bound to change fortunes of both the party and Ramana. Party’s working president Revanth and Ramana will supplement each other in what they amiss.
