Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday said that the TDP lives in the heart of Telangana people.

Launching the public outreach programme of his party in Telangana, he called up party cadres to work hard to strengthen the party.

He launched ‘inti inti ki Telugu Desam’ programme to take the party to every doorstep in the state.

Formally inaugurating the programme at NTR Trust Bhavan, the TDP headquarters in Hyderabad, in the presence of party’s Telangana unit President Kasani Gnaneswar, senior leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and others, Naidu said that as long as there is Telugu community around, the TDP will remain alive.

He said the response to the programme and the recent public meeting held in Khammam was a befitting answer to those who were questioning the existence of the TDP in Telangana.

He said it was the TDP which raised the status of Hyderabad to the international level and provided infrastructure which no other city in the country had.

“If Telangana is number one in per capita income in the country today, it is because of the strong foundation laid by the TDP,” he said.

Naidu claimed that it was the TDP which started welfare schemes for various sections of people, especially the weaker sections.

He recalled that 41 years ago N. T. Rama Rao founded the TDP for the self-respect of Telugu people. “It was on the soil of Telangana that NTR formed the party,” he said, adding that the TDP became synonymous with social justice”.

Naidu said the TDP also strived to ensure that the benefits of development reach all sections of people. He recalled that it was NTR who abolished the patel patwari system in Telangana and empowered women.

He said that it is the desire of every Telugu that the prestigious Bharat Ratna be conferred on NTR.