The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has decided not to contest the Assembly election in Telangana scheduled for next month. With the TDP supremo and former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu still in jail in an alleged skill development scam, the party decided to stay away from the electoral battle in the state. A decision to this effect was said to have been taken after a meeting of TDP chief Kasani Gnaneswar with Chandrababu Naidu inside Rajahmundry Central Jail. It will be the first time the TDP, which managed to win only two seats in the 2018 polls, chose not to contest the Assembly election after the formation of Telangana in 2014.
However, a high drama was witnessed at the TTDP office at NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad on Sunday after Gnaneshwar conveyed the party decision to the workers. The TDP had contested in the 2018 elections in Telangana in alliance with the Congress, again had a pre-poll pact with the Congress and the CPI. The party polled 3.51 per cent of votes in the last Assembly elections. Earlier, TDP MLA and actor N. Balakrishna had held a meeting with TDP leaders in Hyderabad recently and had asked them to gear up for the polls. Balakrishna, who is brother-in-law of Naidu, had stated that TDP will contest the elections in Telangana with full force.The assembly elections will be held in Telangana on November 30. The date of counting is December 3. The notification for the Telangana elections will be issued on November 3 and the polling will take place on November 30. The results will be announced on December 3.The state is set to witness a triangular contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress in the upcoming assembly election.