In the last leg of his long political career, former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is faced with a challenging task of saving the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from the rival onslaught. In the Mahabharata, they say that there were countless reasons for the tragic end of Karna. In the case of the TDP too, there are too many challenges that appear almost unsolvable considering the ruthless attacks from the YCP, the BJP and the Jana Sena parties.

Amidst this, Mr. Naidu is under unforeseen pressure to rediscover his party and refurbish it from top to bottom. But the question is how to go about this. Usually, they say one needs a thorn to remove a thorn. Presently, the biggest real challenge for the TDP is to deal with the dangerous attack launched by CM Jagan Reddy and his party from micro and macro levels. The all round rowdyism, money and muscle power coupled with the captive religious vote bank have made Mr. Jagan Reddy an unchallengeable leader overnight after his victory in the 2019 election.

The pro-YCP commentators try to weaken the morale of Mr. Naidu by saying that only Jr. NTR would be able to breathe new life into the TDP. They are always ready to brand Nara Lokesh as inefficient. On the other hand, political analysts ask how Jr. NTR could face the mighty muscle power of Jagan Reddy. Even Pawan Kalya, who is known as the Power Star, could not stand the street power of the YCP and joined hands with the Modi-Shah duo to protect his cadres from the YCP political harassment.

Undoubtedly, Mr. Naidu’s immediate challenge seems to be preparing his party to match with the mob power of the YCP at the village, mandal, district and State levels. Along with this, the TDP must focus on socio-economic and political reengineering focusing on elimination of total opposition in favour of a single party existence.