ANDHRA PRADESH-Telugu Desam s Comeback Fight

Telugu Desam's Comeback Fight M Shatrugna The coming assembly election will be decisive for the Telugu Desam's survival A SPECTRE is haunting Andhra Pradesh - that of Telugu Desam. If the massive attendance at the Praja Garjana (people's roar) on October 10 is any indication, NTR should stage a comeback in Andhra Pradesh after a lapse of five years. Apart from the massive turnout, the enthusiasm of the people at the sprawling Gymkhana grounds in Secunderabad reminded one of the mood of the people a dozen years ago when the Telugu Desam had inflicted a crushing defeat on the Congress(I). By a quirk of circumstances, the aging Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, who had led a faction- ridden Congress(I) in the 1983 elections and lost, has to face the TDP this time as well as the chief minister.