TDP MPs meet Kumaraswamy, seeks support in fight against Centre

Members of Parliament from Telugu Desam Party met Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru on Monday and handed over a letter by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu seeking cooperation and support for TDP's fight against the Centre for justice to Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier in the day, a team comprising C.M. Ramesh, T.G. Venkatesh and M. Murali Mohan also met DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi in Chennai and sought support on no-confidence motion against the Centre in upcoming monsoon session of Parliament over demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP had earlier made six-subgroups of the party leaders they will meet and handover Chandrababu Naidu's letter and a booklet explaining the injustice done to the state and seek their support.

TDP leader YS Chowdary will lead Group 1, which has been assigned to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik (BJD), Harsimrat Kaur Badal (SAD) and the Delhi's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

As leader of the second group, TDP's Thotha Narsimham will meet Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and D. Raja of Communist Party of India (CPI), Basudeb Acharia (CPM), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel of NCP.

However, Shiv Sena had said that the party chief Uddhav Thackeray did not give time to meet the TDP MPs.

The third group involves M.K Stalin (DMK), O Panneerselvam (AIDMK), HD Kumaraswamy of JD-S, Akhilesh Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of BSP. The group will be led by CM Ramesh.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (JDU), Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Teja Pratap Yadav (RJD) and Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP are included in the fourth group, which is being looked after by Galla Jayadev.

Meanwhile, TDP's Ashok Gajapathi Raju is looking after the fifth group, which will meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (TRS), Asaduddin Owaisi (MIM) and Jose K. Mani of Kerala Congress.

The final sixth group includes political parties like Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Rashtriya Lokdal, Sikkim Democratic Front, Republic Party of India among others. This group is led by Ram Mohan Naidu.

On July 15, TDP President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu wrote letters to non-BJP, non-Congress parties' presidents and Parliamentary party leaders seeking support in their fight against the Centre.

The demand for the special category status for Andhra Pradesh has become a bone of contention between the Andhra Pradesh state government and the Centre after the bifurcation of the region which gave birth to Telangana in 2014.

Notably, Naidu had promised the residents of Andhra Pradesh for bringing the state under the special category. Under this category, the Centre is bound to provide more funds for the development of the region.

It should be noted that the Monsoon Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin from July 18.