Gandipet, the venue for the three-day Mahanadu, wore a festive look on Thursday and was painted yellow with party flags and banners fluttering, and cut-outs of TDP founder N T Rama Rao and president N Chandrababu Naidu magnificently in place by the time the political extravaganza commenced.
‘Mahanadu‘ which also marks the birth anniversary of the late N T Rama Rao was held here four times when NTR was alive. The Gandipet venue was chosen for the first time after NTR's death.
Chandrababu Naidu hoisted the flag, inaugurated a photo expo highlighting NTR’s political career. A blood bank was also inaugurated to mark the occasion.
Huge crowds turned up at the venue at the inaugural of the three-day mega event, but the Tollywood heroes of the Nandamuri clan including Balakrishna, NTR and Kalyan Ram were conspicuous by their absence. The Nandamuri heroes are expected to leave for Karamchedu to attend the unveililng of a statue of NTR. Karamchedu is the birthplace of Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, Congress MLA of Parchur and is the son-in-law of late NTR.
With a view to targeting Chandrababu's Mahanadu, Daggubati is believed to have planned this programme at Karamchedu to coincide the TDP's mega event. However, the Nandamuri heroes claim that they would attend the Mahanadu on the concluding day i.e May 29.
Earlier in the day, registration of delegates picked up from 8 a.m and it crossed the 3000 by the time the party supremo reached the venue.