ELURU: Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu did some `soul-searching' on his rapport with his party rank and file.

Addressing a party district-level meeting here on Tuesday as a prelude to his two-day exercise of reviewing the party's organisational status in the Assembly constituencies in the district, Mr Naidu observed "It's a fact that I had distanced myself from the party's grassroots level workers after I became the Chief Minister for the second time. In my capacity as the Chief Minister, I spent most of my time in the service of people during that period at the expense of my day-to-day interaction with you (workers)."

He said "Now, I want to set the record straight by narrowing such a gap."

`No' to groupism

Saying that he would not brook any kind of groupism within the party instigated by some `armchair' leaders, Mr Naidu highlighted the need for decentralisation of the decision-making process within the party.

Saying he was inclined to bring in decentralisation in the coming local body elections, he said amid cheers from workers that the "Selection (of candidates) and (their) election will be only at the local level with active participation of the local cadres. There will be no imposition of candidates (by the higher-level leadership).

Wooing people

In his marathon address, Mr Naidu appeared to make efforts to win back the confidence of some sections, mainly farmers, women and minorities.

As a move in this direction, he criticised the Congress Government for "diluting" its free power promise by `forcing' farmers to go in for capacitors and `Deepam' scheme by increasing the price of cooking gas.

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