Telugu Desam Party completed Silver Jubilee year (1982-2007)

Telugu Desam Party successfully completed 25 years of political life. It was founded by N.T.Ramarao (NTR) to change the political scenario in Andhra Pradesh. He came to power within 9 months of Telugu Desam inception. He successfully defeated Congress party which is in power since 1952.

Major incidents in Telugu Desam history:

1. October 1981: NTR announced his intention to dedicate himself to serve the Telugu people for 15 days in a month since his 60th birthday. This was happened in “Sardar Paparaidu” film shooting. NTR got his inspiration to serve people from Hindu spiritual guru Swami Vivekananda.

2. March 28, 1982: NT Ramarao formed officially a political steering committee of 13 members.

3. March 29, 1982: NTR announced the formation of Telugu Desam Party at 2:30 PM as he was a strong believer of Astrology.

4. April11, 1982: First public meeting of Telugu Desam Party was held in Hyderabad at Nizam Collage Grounds. More than 80,000 people attended to that meeting which was never happened in Andhra politics. Main supported to NTR is Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, an ex-congress minister.

5. May 27-29, 1982: First “Mahanadu” (Party’s annual meeting) was held in Tirupati. It was a grand success. Lakhs of people from all over the Andhra Pradesh attended to that party meeting.

6. NTR extensively campaigned for the 1983 elections for 9 months from May 1982 to January3, 1983. He ended his campaign in Tirupati where the first meeting was held.

7. January 5, 1983: It was the polling day for the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

8. Assembly Results: Telugu Desam won 203 seats while Congress won 60 seats. Other parties won in 30 constituencies.

9. NTR became the first non-congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

10. He gave importance to 3 things in political or personal life:

A. Morality
B. Honesty
C. Discipline.

August Turmoil:

11. June 9, 1984: NT Ramarao went to America for a health check-up and was diagnosed as suffering from Heart disease. He returned to India and went back to United stated in August. He was operated (by-pass surgery) by famous surgeon Dr. Dental Coolie. He returned to India on August 14, 1984.

12. During this period, Nadendla Bhaskara Rao revolted against NTR and Telugu Desam was in disarray due to politics in the party.

13. August 16, 1984: Ramlal, Andhra Governor, dismissed the Telugu Desam government and invited Nadendla to sworn in as Chief Minister.

14. Public rebelled against these events and observed strikes and agitations in support of NTR dismissal.

15. As situation worsened in the state, the central government recalled Ramlal and sent Sankardayal Sarma as new governor of Andhra Pradesh.

16. September 20, 1984: NTR proved his majority and again became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. This was a unbelievable incident at that time.

17. NTR sent a letter to the governor recommending the dissolution of the Assembly.

18. Telugu Desam won 35 Loksabha seats in the Parliament elections while Congress swept the polls all over the country due to sentiment caused by Indira Gandhi’s death.

19. March 9, 1985: NTR became the chief minister for the third time after winning 1985 assembly elections. TDP won in 202 assembly constituencies.

20. NT Ramarao formed the National front to unite the opposition parties at the national level.

21. 1989 Assembly elections: Telugu Desam lost these elections and Congress came to power.

22. September 11, 1993: NTR married Laxmiparvathi.

23. 1994 Assembly Elections: Telugu Desam came to power by winning 213 assembly elections while Congress got just 26 seats. NTR sworn in as Chief Minister for the fourth time and as 12th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

24. Troubles started in TDP and party divided into two factions.

A. NTR TDP - NTR faction.
B. Official TDP - Chandrababu faction.

25. September 1, 1995: N. Chandrababu Naidu sworn in as 13th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

26. 1999 Assembly Elections: Telugu Desam won the elections and Chandrababu sworn in as chief Minister for the second time.

27. 2004 Assembly Elections: Congress party came to power by defeating Telugu Desam.

28. NT Ramarao tenure as Chief Minister was 7 ½ years.

29. Chandrababu tenure as Chief Minister was 9 years.

Emergence of Telugu Desam is a significant change in Andhra Pradesh politics. NTR was the only leader in national politics who can match Indira Gandhi in attracting people.

NTR's era

TDP is a regional political party in India's Andhra Pradesh state. It was founded by former Telugu film starN.T. Rama Rao on March 29, 1982. Mr. Rama Rao wanted an alternative to the ruling CongressParty in the state.

In the 8th Lok Sabha 1984, it was the second largest party with 30 members.

NTR, also known as ANNA (elder brother), toured the state extensively in what was calledChaitanya Ratham (literally - a Chariot which spreads awareness), his "election vehicle", and made use of the immense popularity of his on-screen movie image (his image in roles of Hindumythological dieties- Rama, Krishna etc) to win the next election. The party was voted into power in a record nine months after its establishment on March 29, 1982. TDP also won 30 (out of 42)Lok Sabha seats in the 1984 Indian elections. This made TDP the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha as the Indian National Congress won more than 400 (out of about 500) seats to win the election. This was the first time that any regional party became the largest opposition party in India.

The TDP was voted to power in the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1983. During his first term, Rama Rao introduced many populist measures like selling a kilogram of rice for Rs.2.

In 1994, N.T. Rama Rao gave up his sanyasa and married a student of political history who had come to write his biography. In this period he also played a significant role in national politics by pledging support to the then prime Ministers V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar (who formed coalition governments in the absence of absolute majority for their respective parties).