FUTURE PLAN: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu at party meeting in Hyderabad on Tuesday. -Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu is said to have done some plain speaking at a party meeting here on Tuesday and expressed disappointment at the poor efforts made by the seniors in bridging the chasm that has developed between the party and the people.

Sources said Mr. Naidu was peeved that the party seniors who were so active when they were enjoying Cabinet posts were not showing the same enthusiasm now in running the party's programmes. At one stage, he is stated to have even sent a stern "perform or perish" message saying if they do not shake off their lethargy, he would have to rely on fresh blood.

Decries squabbling

He is believed to have reminded them how he had been a fighter all through his political career and asked them to come out and fight for the cause of the people. Political battles could not be waged from home but on fields, he told them.

He asked the district leaders to leave out those who were reluctant to participate in the party programmes. He also expressed displeasure at the squabbling prevalent in some district units.

Upset at the functioning of the some of the district units in taking the cadre at the lowest level into confidence, Mr. Naidu told them that henceforth he would pay more attention to meeting party workers than addressing public meetings.

He would devote two days a month to each district and constituency. He has begun the exercise by calling the party cadre from his Kuppam constituency and holding discussions with them for six hours.

Disagrees with colleagues

He would repeat the exercise during his pre-panchayat election tour of the districts beginning on April 9.

Sources said Mr. Naidu disagreed with the view of a section of the partymen that the party should not have seen the files relating to Sripadasagar irrigation project tenders and instead insisted on keeping them with the Assembly Speaker.

Among various views that emerged at the meeting, a senior leader from Visakhapatnam seemed to have differed with the argument of a Rajya Sabha MP that the party should go slow on the issue of allotment of land to private parties for industries. The former told the meeting how Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy went aggressively as leader of the Opposition, on all issues including that of the junior doctors strike at that time.

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