Puttaparthi: The Telugu Desam Party’s leaders are resorting to dirty tricks, including staging fake membership drives, in a desperate attempt to project strength ahead of assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.

TDP activists in Puttaparthi gathered their own supporters and welcomed them by offering party scarves, claiming that hundreds of families had joined the party from the ruling YSRCP. The yellow media, which is party-friendly, is amplifying this news, as the TDP badly needs a makeover before the polls.

Similar incidents of fake membership drives were reported from Raptadu and Dharmavaram constituencies of Sri Sathya Sai district recently. However, these tactics found no takers, with even TDP activists expressing anger at the local leaders, saying such dramas will damage the party's credibility among voters.

It is a fact that the TDP's popularity graph is falling day by day. People are leaving the party in droves even in traditional strongholds like the villages dominated by the Paritala family. Meanwhile, the YSRCP's campaign is gaining overwhelming support from the public.

The opposition party is consistently spreading false stories about the state government with the support of the yellow media, even as it continues to lose members. Critics allege that the party-aligned media and IT cells are helping the TDP spread a false narrative in a desperate bid to regain ground before the elections

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