I have personally covered the whole process of leadership change in the Telugu Desam Party in August 1995. I have been able to smell rat in the relations among the top echelons of the leadership of the party very well in advance, even before Chandrababu Naidu egged his friendly media against Lakshmi Parvati to malign her and the cascading effect had fallen on NTR and his staunch supporters.
Well, all that is history. Why at all now should there be a reference to that? Naidu has always maintained a well-oiled machinery on multiple spheres to work for him without uttering a word, thus emerging as the most unpredictable leader of that season and genre.
YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s ranting about the leadership change in the State, as “a lot of MLAs from the TDP are in touch” with him doesn’t portend a threat for the Government at the helm. A politician must wear on his sleeve an element of diplomacy and some knack to hide his emotions. He should never give an impression that he is just another windbag.
Jagan, for some strange reasons, has left an impression among the people that he is just blabbering out of frustration. He almost has announced that he is out to pull a fast one on Naidu’s TDP Government in Andhra Pradesh. For a minute, even if one trusts that what the Leader of the Opposition has claimed has some substance in it, why wouldn’t a politically astute Chandrababu Naidu take a cue from this and dig a moat around all his MLAs?
Jagan cannot foresee what’s in store for him in politically-charged situations. He is now 43. Almost around the same age, Chandrababu Naidu – He was 44 when he became the Chief Minister first — meticulously engineered a palace coup and usurped power from the mighty N T Rama Rao sans much ado before. He had only prepared himself and his mechanism to effectively combat the aftermath of pulling down the political behemoth from the throne.
When Jagan recklessly announced that several MLAs of the ruling party were in touch with him, it did not seem to be a retort to the propaganda of the Chandrababu Naidu’s own trumpets. He just appeared like a weak-kneed leader who blurted out a meek repartee, which is indeed uncalled for from him.
People began deriding his claim.
Why doesn’t Jagan factor in the far-reaching consequences of his statements that rattle his personal political stature and fledgling party’s future?
It is true, if 23 MLAs cross over to Jagan’s side, he can turn the tables against Naidu. But how easy or how difficult it is. If it were to be that simple, he would have played this banal political game long ago and stopped Naidu in his tracks. But, for swapping positions with Naidu, Jagan has to choose a straight route of winning the polls by trudging the path of political toil. If he wants a backdoor entry into the saddle, it will remain a reverie.
No, Mr Jagan. This is not the way you should be speaking. If you think you have so much of a clout among the TDP MLAs, I think you are wrong. You cannot pay Naidu back on the same coin.
