The first regional party in Andhra Pradesh to have formed the first non-Congress government is celebrating its 40th year of formation. A couple of weeks ago, Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress too celebrated their formation days.
Jagan Mohan Reddy and his followers must have been happy to celebrate the event as the party is in power now. But, Pawan Kalyan had some pain to celebrate the formation day and hence he took an oath to defeat the YSR Congress in the next general elections. He also had plans to unite all opposition parties to ensure that the anti-incumbency vote was intact.
Similarly, Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh are not happy to celebrate the event. They too are out of power and have a strong urge to come back. Their defeat in the 2019 elections that too in the hands of Jagan Mohan Reddy is a bitter pill for them to swallow. They have been struggling to swallow it since May 2019.
Leaving 12 years of NTR’s regime, the party has been in the hands of Chandrababu Naidu for all these years. Interestingly, whenever the party won the elections, he took the success on his side. But whenever the party failed at the hustings, he blamed it on the people. This time, after the 2019 elections, he has been blaming the voters.
After 40 years, several big leaders have left the party and it has lost its ground in Telangana. Chandrababu Naidu is on the wrong side of his age. Lokesh, the legal and political heir of Naidu, is unable to match the politics of Jagan Mohan Reddy, at least as a good number of people believe.
The party has to come back to power in 2024, if not its survival will be a big question. In politics, 2029 is too far and anything can happen. If the TDP fails in the 2024 elections too, it would be a herculean task before the leadership to keep the folks together till 2029.
Will Naidu be able to lead the party till then? Or will Lokesh be able to inspire the younger generations and voters to defeat strategic and uncompromising politician like Jagan Mohan Reddy!? Things are not going to be easy for the TDP if one looks at the reality.
