Chandrababu A Liability For Third Front in 2019 Elections

By Y Satyanarayana

From the way, the political equations seem to emerge on a pan Indian scenario, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu may not quite turn out to be the Baahubali he thinks he is! On a closer look at the contours of the political landscape as it is taking shape currently, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is on a much more sound footing. His recent victory in the Assembly elections has proved that his gamble had paid off more successfully than the best of political pundits had forecast.

KCR's Mission 2019 aimed at cobbling a front which is neither aligned to the Congress nor the BJP is already afoot. His objective, which was earlier derided by many opponents and analysts needs to be taken more seriously now. Even by a conservative estimate, KCR's TRS would certainly bag ten out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. If Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati were to throw their weight behind this coalition, adding other important players to it, the tally would go past 100. This would give the front the levearage it needs to be pitchforked into the centre-stage of national politics and also draw many other players like Nitish Kumar and Uddhav Thackeray to its fold. Where does this leave Chandrababu Naidu, who has been trying to project himself as the grand unifier of an alternative to the Narendra Modi-led NDA?

For the Congress, Chandrababu Naidu has already become the proverbial albatross around its neck in the light of the Telangana experiment. It would probably like to rethink its plan of going into polls in AP in alliance with the TDP after its bitter Telangana experience, unless of course the decision is once again made in Delhi and left to the local foot soldiers to act upon.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister appears to be a bit flustered at the moment. At a recent media event, when a well known journalist questioned him on oft-cited criticism regarding his political opportunism, Chandrababu Naidu seemed clearly uncomfortable. When a senior journalist interviewing him remarked that while BJP was his ally in 2014, and the Congress, his adversary, it was the other way round now. He added that ultimately for politicians it was a question of staying on in power. Chandrababu Naidu’s eyes flared as he asked the journalist--”Do you want to be in journalism? “ He added--”permanently”? Chandrababu suggested that just as the journalsit served different employers, he was in politics to “serve the people”, while his political compulsions, differed at times. It’s another thing that political compulsions is a euphemism for survival in public life.

As odious as the comparison of a media professional’s career to that of a politician’s is, especially considering all analogies are, it also sheds light on the TDP chief’s attempt to justify his changing political goalposts. His claim that he had to sail with the Congress to ‘save democracy’ and the nation sounded quite hollow and lame.

Dishonesty is only one side of public figures in contemporary politics. Brazenness of the kind worn like a badge of honour by the TDP chief is something else as seen from his criticism of IT, CBI and ED among other Central agencies.

Fast forward to pre-election tie-ups and it is clear that a Mamata Banerjee, an Akhilesh Yadav, a Mayawati or a Naveen Patnaik would like to place their eggs in a political basket which would yield higher returns. From the way things seem to be taking shape, Chandrababu is fast getting reduced to a political pygmy as far as the national scene goes.

Significantly, major political players on the national scene on whom Chandrababu Naidu seems to be pinning his hopes would like to keep their options open. This can be gauged from the cordial manner in which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached out to YSR Congress party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on the occasion of his birthday by extending her greetings to him on Twitter. YS Jagan reciprocated demonstrating an equal measure of courtesy.

If Chandrababu thought that walking out of the NDA and blaming it on the BJP for not granting special category status to AP for which he did nothing in the four years during which he was their ally, would earn him some brownie points in popular perception, he has got it all wrong. His political graph is declining more sharply than he would like to acknowledge.

Also Read: It’s A Straight Fight Between Chandrababu, YS Jagan In 2019