A day after the monsoon session of Assembly ended, the TDP embarked on a serious exercise to gear up the party for the general elections, and has started working out strategies to counter the changing political scenario. It has decided to draft actors Harikrishna, Balakrishna, Jr NTR and Kalyanram into its poll campaign to counter the impact of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi.

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday hosted lunch for these actors and their families at his Jubilee Hills residence. Though on record it was claimed that it was a family gathering, the fact remains that a serious discussion took place on the modalities of the campaign to be taken up soon. The NTR family scions reiterated their full support to Naidu. Naidu took care to see that none of the senior party members was present at the meeting.

Senior TDP leaders say that this meeting would send a message across the rank and file that the NTR family was strongly behind Naidu. Now that it is more or less certain that the TDP and the Left would go together in the polls, support from the NTR family would help prevent any exodus from the cadre even if some more leaders decide to jump over to Prajarajyam, it is felt.

According to sources, the tentative decision was that Balakrishna would make his political entry with a public meeting at Mahbubnagar later this month after unveiling a statue of NTR. He will also participate in the Yuva Garjana to be held in Guntur next month. Harikrishna and Jr NTR are likely to address meetings in the Rayalaseema region in the first phase where they have considerable fan following. Kalyanram will address meetings in the coastal belt.

Harikrishna will go round the Telangana districts and enthuse the cadre. However, it is not yet clear if Balakrishna, whose daughter is married to Naidu's son, will only be a star campaigner or will be asked to contest polls. Party insiders say that as of now he will only campaign and will not contest. Balakrishna is said to have made vain efforts to rope in his sister and Union minister of state D Purandreeswari and her husband D Venkateswara Rao on the Rakhi day.