By IANS
Hyderabad : The war of words between the camps of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu and his sister-in-law and union minister of state D. Purandareshwari has intensified with her husband D. Venkateswara Rao recalling the events of 1995 to hit out at former chief minister.
Venkateswara Rao, a ruling Congress party leader and member of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly, remarked that Naidu can do anything for power. He denied having extended any assistance to Naidu in the latter's revolt against TDP founder and their father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao.
Naidu's brother-in-law, who had initially sided with him but later joined NTR, as the actor-turned-politician was popularly known, claimed that the TDP founder was ready for an alliance with the Congress party.
He told newsmen here Wednesday that the TDP founder was ready to offer some Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in 1996 elections in return for the latter's support for him in the next assembly elections.
The revelation could trigger a debate in political circles as it was NTR who ended the Congress party's monopoly in state politics by coming to power nine months after launching the TDP in March 1982.
The war of words was sparked by NTR's eldest daughter Purandareshwari, who wrote a hard-hitting letter to Naidu on the occasion of her father's 85th death anniversary on Monday.
Accusing Naidu of "back-stabbing" her father by the revolt in August 1995, she compared the events to coups during the Mughal rule.
The bitter attack on Naidu came when the TDP was holding its 25th annual conclave or 'Mahanadu' at Tirupati, where Naidu was elected unopposed as the party president for the sixth consecutive term.
Hitting out at her brother-in-law, Purandareshwari alleged that Naidu was misusing NTR's dedication, labour and popularity by using the party symbol and flag.
She and her husband had joined the Congress a few months before 2004 elections. She was elected to the Lok Sabha and was inducted as union minister of state for human resource development in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Purandareshwari alleged that Naidu humiliated NTR during his last days and did not even allow him to speak in the assembly.
In her six-page letter, she said NTR loathed him. "Neither NTR blessed Naidu nor declared him his successor. He had in fact urged people in his last message not to cast their votes for Naidu," she said.
Purandareshwari also recalled that when NTR formed the TDP, Naidu had refused to join it saying that not everyone who paints his face can become a leader. She said Naidu, who subsequently joined the party, resorted to nefarious tactics and political manipulations.
On behalf of Naidu, some TDP leaders, however, shot back to allege that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy were inciting NTR's daughter against him.
TDP's leader in parliament K. Yerran Naidu said all members of NTR's family stood by Naidu during the crisis of August 1995 and it was Venkateswara Rao who proposed the name of Chandrababu Naidu as the party president. He claimed that even Purandareshwari had supported him.
The TDP leader said the fact that she kept quiet all these years and wrote a letter only after she and her husband joined the Congress, proved that the party was firing its guns over her shoulders.
Naidu, who had led a revolt against NTR in 1995 following interference by latter's second wife Lakshmi Parvathi in party affairs and administration, remained chief minister till 2004, when the party had to suffer its worst-ever electoral defeat.