Time for Babu to eye PM post

Senior Telugu Desam Party leader Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu on Wednesday said that the time has come for his party president N Chandrababu Naidu to make a bid at becoming the country’s Prime Minister.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of public meeting organized as part of the campaign for the by-elections, Mr Muddukrishnama Naidu said that his party president has all the capabilities needed to lead the Nation.

“Mr Chandrababu Naidu should focus on National politics to become the country’s Prime Minister. He must become the Prime Minister of the country to end corruption in the country,” he stated.

Stating that there was a ‘dire need’ of a strong leader who could contain the rampant corruption by the Congress at the Centre, Mr Muddukrishnama Naidu stated Mr Chandrababu Naidu was the right to person to cleanse the country of corruption.

The senior TDP leader further advised Mr Naidu to hand over the reins of the party to some other leader and work on the national stage. “This would bring laurels to the state, particularly to the Telugu people,” Mr Muddukrishnama Naidu stated.

Pointing out Mr Chandrababu Naidu had a chance to become Prime Minister in 1996 when he played a key role in bringing diverse parties to join hands and form the United Front government, Mr Muddukrishnama Naidu stated that the TDP chief had then declined to head the coalition government citing that he was too young to take up responsibilities and to do lot more for state.

The ‘suggestion’ and the enticement of ‘Telugu pride’ by Mr Muddukrishnama Naidu comes at a time when reports of a serious rift between the Nara and Nandamuri families over the TDP chief’s successor.

It is believed that the rift has erupted after Mr Chandrababu Naidu started to groom his son Nara Lokesh to head the TDP, which was opposed by party founder-president NT Rama Rao’s elder son Harikrishna.