VIJAYAWADA: After four years in the NDA camp, the TDP on Friday finally ‘rushed’ out the door. The immediate reason for its morning run is apparently a desire to beat the main Opposition party, the YSR Congress, in the ongoing game of one upmanship in Andhra politics. It was YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, taking the cue from actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, who had first thrown the gauntlet of moving/supporting a no-confidence motion against the Modi government at TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu had tied himself up in knots — first ridiculing the very idea, then terming it a last resort, and subsequently, vowing to support the motion moved by anyone including the YSRC and ultimately, galloping to move it himself. It must have been a liberating experience, even though some of his MLAs were left fuming at the end of the day for delaying the decision and giving the YSRC a tactical victory. Liberating because Naidu was never happy in the NDA led by the Modi-Shah combine. The career politician, who celebrated the completion of 40 years in the field just the other day, believes he never really received the respect that he deserves from the BJP’s present leadership.
He confessed so himself in an informal chit chat Friday. It’s this ego clash between Naidu, who had played a key national role earlier in the 1990s and under the Vajpayee dispensation, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that is at the root cause of the BJP -TDP rift. Naidu could not get even a single appointment with the PM for about one-and-a-half years while Jagan and even his MP Vijayasai Reddy were given an audience whenever they sought. Even on Friday afternoon, Naidu pointed at this reception to Reddy by the PMO. A TDP leader, on condition of anonymity, observed this is like adding insult to injury.
Naidu’s other oft-repeated claim of being the “senior most leader in the country”, he pointed out, shows how hurt he was. Not only hurt, he is also convinced that the BJP leadership has a clandestine agreement with the YSRC and Pawan Kalyan, the other significant player in Andhra, to finish off the TDP in 2019. Naidu further reasons that the poor fund flow to the State is also a deliberate BJP ploy to weaken him. This kind of insecurity isn’t limited to Naidu. Other regional satraps share the same apprehension. Now in a combative mood, Naidu will seek to wreak havoc on the BJP. To start with, he will be talking to leaders of all other parties. And, that may include even the Congress, a one-time arch rival of the TDP.