With Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) set to wrap up a massive membership drive soon, the party has announced a number of initiatives, including empowering party workers to confirm or reject the election of members of various committees while MLAs and office-bearers can only make recommendations.
The party has also decided to provide accidental insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh each to party workers.
The election of members for committees, including at booth, village, mandal, and Assembly constituency level will be conducted through text messages that the party sends to its workers, who can then confirm or reject the options.
“An SMS will be sent. Once they (party members) click on it, it will take them to a mobile-optimised website where the committee details along with their names and photos will be displayed. At the bottom, there is an option to accept or reject the committee,” said party national general secretary and Minister for Education N Lokesh Naidu.
Currently, the TDP is conducting one of its largest membership drives, with numbers crossing 96 lakh and expected to touch 1 crore.
On Thursday, the party signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with insurance companies to provide accidental insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh to each party member.
“This is the largest insurance programme for a non-government entity across India. The accidental death insurance coverage of Rs 2 lakh started in 2014. So far 5,100 cadre families have been taken care of via this programme. In power or out of power, the programme continued,” Lokesh said. However, ahead of the new membership drive – the party does one every two years – the decision was taken to increase the insurance amount to Rs 5 lakh.
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A separate cell has also been constituted at the TDP central office to immediately provide assistance to the party workers if they meet with accidents.
On behalf of the NTR Trust, residential schools have also been established in Hyderabad and Challapalli in Krishna district to extend free education to the children of party workers who have died.
As per the agreement with United India Insurance and the Pragmatic Insurance Broking Services, TDP paid Rs 42 crore as the first premium for the insurance for party workers for the full year – January 1-December 31, 2025. The party will be paying a similar amount next year, too.
The elections to the committees will take place after the membership drive winds down over the next few days, the party said.
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Elections for booth, village, unit, cluster, mandal, and Assembly constituency committees will be held first, followed by parliamentary committees, state committees, and then the national party president election. These elections will be completed before the TDP’s conclave, ‘Mahanadu’, which will be held in May.
The TDP has also set up a separate legal wing to look after court cases filed against the TDP workers during the previous YSRCP regime.
The TDP swept to victory in last year’s Assembly election, with the coalition led by the party winning 164 of the 175 available seats.
