Following the arrest of former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Development Corporation scam case, there is a growing clamour by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supporters against actor Jr NTR, asking him to voice out his condemnation. Jr NTR is the grandson of TDP founder NT Rama Rao, and Naidu is married to Jr NTR’s aunt and NTR's daughter Bhuvaneswari. Though Naidu was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the Skill Development Corporation scam case on Saturday, September 9, the actor is yet to make a statement reacting to the arrest.
While the TDP was founded by actor and former CM NT Rama Rao in 1982, the party was later taken over by Chandrababu Naidu. And Jr NTR, who is the son of Harikrishna (NTR’s elder son), had actively participated in politics in support of the TDP in 2009. As a star actor, he had campaigned for the party. However, he was later sidelined from the party and is believed to have remained isolated from the family. Since then, Jr NTR has focussed on his acting career and did not intervene in the party’s affairs.
Interestingly, the RRR actor had spoken out in support of the family when his aunt Bhuvaneswari was allegedly insulted in the Andhra Assembly by the YSRCP leaders in 2021. The YSRCP leaders had questioned the ‘inheritance’ of Lokesh. Following this incident, Chandrababu Naidu vowed to not step into the Assembly unless he comes back to power.
Condemning the alleged character assassination of his aunt, JR NTR had said, “Whatever we talk about defines our personality. In politics, criticisms and retorts are quite common, but all those should be limited to public issues and should not be personal. Yesterday, the Assembly incident has triggered me. Whenever we sidetrack public issues and give in to personal criticisms, dragging women into the issue, it leads to anarchy. That's a mistake. Respecting women is our culture, it’s a tradition that is embedded in us. And we should carry forward such a tradition to our future generations.”
But the actor refraining to comment in support of Naidu now has raised eyebrows. Some TDP supporters are even venting their anger on Twitter by tagging the actor for not extending his support when the party is in crisis.
Naidu is presently lodged in the Rajahmundry Central Jail. The Andhra Pradesh police have imposed section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure across the state, foreseeing wide protests by the TDP activists. TDP had called for a statewide bandh on Monday, calling Naidu's arrest an "illegal" act of "political vendetta" by the YSRCP government.