Hyderabad: Staking her claim on NTR's political legacy, his eldest daughter Purandhareswari entered the poll fray on a Congress ticket and will be taking on popular film producer D Rama Naidu in the Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

From being a source of inspiration to her younger siblings, Purandareswari is trying her electoral fortunes from a party which was viewed with contempt by NTR.

"The present-day TDP (Telugu Desam Party) does not carry any of my father's ideals and my contest on Congress ticket need not be viewed as a serious issue," the articulate director of the Hyderabad Institute of Gem and Jewellery maintains.

Purandareswari takes on the formidable D Rama Naidu, who is a distant relative and belong to the same Daggupati clan, which is one of the few wealthy families hailing from the prosperous Karamchedu village in Prakasham district.

Her husband Dr Daggupati Venkateshwara Rao, who split the TDP and dethroned NTR along with Chandrababu Naidu, will be contesting from Parachuru Assembly segment of Bapatla seat.

After Naidu consolidated his position in TDP, Dr Rao hopped from NTR-TDP to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before he finally settled in Congress and his wife Purandareswari, who studied in SIET College, Chennai, and later did a course in Gemology at Gemological Institute of India, Mumbai, is making her maiden bid into politics.

Besides NTR's widow Lakshmiparvathi, his elder son Hari Krishna were the other family members to have shown interest in public life and contested elections.