Almost a week after its defeat in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday urged his party members not be to disheartened by the loss.

He along with his wife Nara Bhuvaneswari and son Nara Lokesh participated in 97th birth anniversary celebrations of his father-in-law and party founder NT Rama Rao at the TDP office in Guntur.

While addressing the party leaders and workers after hoisting the party flag, Naidu asked them not to get demoralized.

Paying rich tributes to NTR, Naidu said that he had brought honour and recognition to Telugu people at the national and international level.

He advised the party leaders to follow the footsteps of NTR, who despite electoral defeats didn’t lose self-confidence and went on to play the role of a constructive opposition. He recalled NTR as the pioneer of the welfare schemes.

He then claimed that in the last four days many people came to him and said they had stood by the party for over 30 years and will continue to do so.

Stating that the party was more important for him than the family, Mr. Naidu said he would stand by the party workers. He also announced that he will come to TDP office in Guntur every day and will be available to party leaders and workers for three hours.

TDP faced the worst-ever defeat in the Assembly elections at the hands of YSR Congress Party, which stormed to power with a landslide victory. TDP bagged only 23 seats in the 175-member Assembly and just three of the 25 LokSabha