The Hindu : Media's midnight odyssey, all for TDP list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 31, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Media's midnight odyssey, all for TDP list

By S. Nagesh Kumar

HYDERABAD, MARCH 30. Midnight is when the day begins for the Telugu Desam Party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, for the last one week or more.

When everyone sleeps, the TDP chief summons his Politburo members to seek their approval for the list of candidates to be fielded for the Assembly and Parliament elections.

After burning midnight oil for some more time with them, Mr. Naidu releases the list, preferably in the wee hours of next day when a majority of daily newspapers would have gone to bed.

He is up and about in another three to four hours to take part in `mana votu, mana bhavishyattu' at NTR Bhavan. His zeal to choose the right candidates is so intense that he spends almost next 18 hours poring through private surveys, party inputs and sits for hours at a stretch with the Intelligence chief, K. Durga Prasad.

The odyssey for reporters begins at around noon. Party spokesmen, often inaccessible due to their pre-occupation with the candidates' selection, assure that the list of nominees would be released in the evening but do not specify any time. When the enquiries become persistent, the spokesmen say, "the list will be released positively by 11 p.m. at the Chief Minister's residence at Jubilee Hills."

To their dismay, reporters discover that the 11 p.m. deadline was a ploy to ensure their attendance. The Politburo is either still closeted in a meeting or is yet to meet. Scribes are often prevented from going beyond the steel barricade about 50 metres from Mr. Naidu's residence.

Hours pass by for reporters sitting on the hard pavement. Two rounds of tea are served even as the tension among scribes mounts over their fast-approaching deadline. Suddenly at around 1.30 a.m. or even 2 a.m., when the reporters have abandoned hopes of sending a despatch, the Politburo meeting ends and the list is distributed. This makes reporters reach for their mobiles or sends them scurrying to their offices.

This drama was enacted three times in the past one week clearly indicating the nervousness of the TDP leadership over the unexpected scale of dissidence in the party.

The hundreds of hours spent by Mr. Naidu on finalising the names of candidates and pacifying the other aspirants have apparently failed to neutralise the dissent.

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