Season’s flavour is crossing over. When Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has almost wiped out the Telugu Desam Party in the Telangana Assembly, the TDP’s media motormouths cried hoarse. Now, when Chandrababu Naidu has opened the Pandora’s box to lure the legislators of YSR Congress, the same media is singing paeans.
Political crossovers aren’t new. The moorings of almost all political parties are anchored on either side of the political stream only to take the winds out of the sails of so-called scruples.
Chandrababu Naidu, KCR or Jagan have no reason to cry over the crossovers. Because, all three became helmsman in their respective political establishments only on the strength of the turncoats. A few fresh faces may have added a dash of originality. But that’s not all.
The TDP, which was dented terribly in Telanagana, has set its eyes on YSRC in Andhra.
Let us examine why was it easy for TRS and why will it be different in the case of Telugu Desam.
The TRS is seemingly unstoppable, at least for now. If it is luring a TDP MLA, for instance, the leadership can placate or cajole the TRS candidate who lost the Assembly election saying that the TDP candidate has won on his own strength. The TRS was successful in projecting the TDP as ‘alien’ to the new State and that it is a rank outsider. An easy task, in that.
Same is not the case with the TDP while scooping out the leaders from YSRC. For, the vendetta between the two parties is not something that confined only to politics. When SPY Reddy was taken in even before he was sworn in the MP, the YSRC cried foul. Same is the case with Kothapalli Geeta, Araku MP.
With Bhuma Nagi Reddy now all set to join the TDP, the Kurnool MP Butta Renuka may also follow suit. There may be many others. Leaders give a damn to the anti-defection law. For, the MLAs sailed with Jagan in the last Assembly exactly did the same by crossing over from their respective parties.
If Chandrababu Naidu usurped power from NTR or Jagan instantly formed a new party called YSR Congress, the fodder for them is the chunks of turncoats. The numbers made the difference in making one the prince and the other a pauper.
But Nagi Reddy’s episode has some interesting trappings. It’s not as if a TDP MLA coolly driving to KCR’s office and waxing lyrical on him and officially announcing their joining the ruling party.
The ‘conversion’ from Jagan’s party isn’t that easy. For, the electoral battles were fought fiercely and charges and countercharges ran thick and fast in the air. The animosity between people is insurmountable in most cases. Yet, demoralisation is the mission taken up by the TDP, which lost its face and had fallen from grace in Telangana, and it is committed to inflicting a debilitating injury on the YSRC.
The hyenic cackle in the TDP for now is at its highest decibels.
The YSRC is benumbed with the target chosen by the TDP for engineering a defection, as Nagi Reddy was the most unsuspecting MLA to switch sides. Nagi Reddy’s exit will have a dominos effect. Many would follow him.
Staying within iron curtains, never attempting to open communication channels, princely behaviour and immature ranting over change of power in the State sans constitutional understanding have thrown Jagan into an embarrassing situation.
While it is quite and very acceptable that the ruling party always turns out to be a luring party, the Opposition under Jagan continues to remain fledgling with every MLA remaining as strong a loyalist of the party as the weakest links in it.
As long as Jagan remains as he is, without imbibing the qualities of his late father YSR into himself, the YSRC remains rattled.
