Hyderabad, May 27: For the TDP, a regional party founded on welfare plank but now synonymous with aggressive economic reforms, it would be an exercise in re-discovering populist agenda at the party`s crucial annual conclave `mahanadu`, that has begun at the temple town of Tirupati today. Apparently prompted by the approaching assembly elections and an aggressive opposition campaign, the ruling party is set to shed its high-tech image and shift its focus on welfare and agriculture sectors during the three-day annual general meeting where the party supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is expected to announce a slew of welfare schemes.

Amidst surcharged political atmosphere in the state marked by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Y S Rajasekhar Reddy`s padayatra and intensifying movement for separate Telangana by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the mood in TDP is to get back to welfare mode to effectively counter the opposition campaign. Naidu, who is under attack by the opposition for pursuing a "harsh set of reforms at the cost of weaker sections and farmers", is likely to unveil an action plan to implement a string of welfare programmes designed to benefit over one crore people in the state, TDP sources told a news agency here.

The welfare schemes include sanction of 10 lakh house pattas, 5 lakh pucca houses for the poor, 10 lakh LPG connections for rural women, old age pensions for 10 lakh persons and a massive drip irrigation project, sources said. Bureau Report