Is the Telugu Desam Party gaining strength or amassing flab by admitting leaders from the Congress and luring the leaders and legislators of the YSR Congress?
How much value can losers in elections like Anam brothers in the multi-polar leadership in a district like Nellore where the party is surely weak; and Jayasudha, who is confused if she belongs to Telangana for she had represented Secunderabad Assembly seat in 2009-14 or whether she will be working for the party in Andhra Pradesh, add?
The party supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu isn’t naive to accommodate all and sundry risking the loyalty of several senior leaders. For instance, Anam brothers surely don’t enjoy great reputation with any of the TDP leaders like Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy. Some others like P Narayana, who is seen as the one who lured them into the party, and Adala Prabhakar Reddy and many others may have serious differences with the Anam siblings who are notorious for their over-awing and browbeating nature and approach. For it was this set of loyalists who had to defend Chandrababu Naidu from the onslaught of the opposition and retort the bitterest criticism spewed by the
brothers against Naidu on umpteen occasions.
If they had the strength at the grassroots, they would have organised mammoth public meeting in Nellore inviting Chandrababu Naidu and formalised their admission into the party. Instead, they chose to join the party at a convention centre in Vijayawada. This itself shows the field level popularity of the brothers.
Take the case of Jayasudha who sailed with the TDP between 1999 and 2004 and fell silent in the subsequent years. For strategic reasons, YS Rajasekhara Reddy fielded her from Secunderabad Assembly seat in 2009 elections. Later, she dodged and ducked between the YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s group and the Congress and stayed back with the Congress.
Jayasudha per se isn’t very popular as a political leader, though she is well known as a heroine on the Telugu silver screen. Where would she contribute her night to the TDP — is it in AP or Telangana? Nobody knows. If she is taken in to add glamour quotient, then it surely is a wrong move. If she is being considered for any other constituency in the next elections wouldn’t be known so early, as Chandrababu Naidu doesn’t dole out such promises to anybody.
Isn’t the TDP already embarrassed by the antics and angularities of JC Diwakar Reddy, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and other “imported” Congressmen, who at the drop of the hat, pull something or the other out of their magical hats to push the party to a corner? Either they pass remarks that would asphyxiate the pray leadership or eulogise Naidu to such an extent that he would feel he was being derided with the encomiums. Several ministers, MLAs and MPs have been “imported” from the Congress after pursuing a diehard anti-TDP and anti-Naidu politics. For example, Diwakar Reddy and Minister Patitala Sunita can never close the ranks for obvious reasons.
What intrigues onlookers is that wouldn’t these leaders act like FDIs (foreign direct investments) serving their “original masters” indirectly by being in TDP? Doesn’t the TDP leadership know that old habits die hard? Will the loyal TDP cadre work for the victory of these leaders, if fielded in the next elections? Won’t the original leaders be disgruntled, if they are ignored and the implants getting more importance than the original crop of leaders?
Isn’t the TDP creating a readymade leadership for YSRC wherever it doesn’t have a front face?
Already Naidu is infamous for creating groups within the party units of every district and then indulge in pedagogy to be united. This has been his style ever since he pulled a fast one against the legendary NTR and engineered a palace coup to usurp power and reins of the party. From Srikakulam to Chittoor and Kurnool to Anantapur, the TDP has too many splinter groups within and the imported leaders are worsening the situation by adding to the bedlam. Is it the avaricious urge to gobble up the opposition or an attempt to balance the greed and arrogance of the existing second rung of leadership that Naidu is encouraging defections will be known only in due course.
