In the mid-1990s and about the time when the Bharatiya Janata Party was still building its formidable cadre, the Telugu Desam Party’s N. Chandrababu Naidu used to be the busiest political body in Delhi and everybody knew if something political was cooking it would be in Naidu’s kitchen. Current Congress leader Rajiv Shukla used to be a “journalist” then and in the thick of what Chandrababu was cooking. Those times have faded but the other day when Naidu met Union Home Minister Amit Shah it did take one back in time. So, what’s cooking in the ‘Naidu Mess’ in 2023?
Let’s start with the fact that the Telangana assembly elections are bothering Naidu as much as general elections 2024 is giving the BJP nervous creeps. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “force and power” has spooked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his most trusted majordomo Amit Shah. Also, the Karnataka loss hasn’t yet done with eating into the BJP’s innards. There must be a tight band of tension across at least one 56” chest.
And Naidu being the old warhorse knows this is the best time to reach out a friendly hand. Don’t forget Naidu is the same man who had strong reservations against the BJP leadership by the end of Modi’s first term. Especially after Modi refused “Special Category Status” to Andhra Pradesh ahead of the 2019 general elections.
But 2023 is not 2019 and Naidu’s June 3 meeting with Amit Shah in New Delhi has fed the political imagination. Is this an inkling of a BJP-TDP alliance? To start with the bland, Naidu is said to have impressed Shah with a roundabout on the current political makeup in not only Andhra Pradesh, but also in Telangana, where Bharat Rashtra Samithi Chief K Chandrashekhar Rao is a common foe.
In Andhra Pradesh, “CBN” and YSRCP Chief Jagan Mohan Reddy wouldn’t be seen within earshot of each other if they could help it. The grapevine says Naidu stressed the need for a TDP-BJP electoral alliance. Like said, the Karnataka election loss has left the Bharatiya Janata Party lonely and forlorn. And the BJP could do with alliance partners.
At least on paper the NDA should look formidable. Lean and mean does not suit the NDA. Actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) is already a partner of the BJP, and Kalyan wants “unity”. The Bharatiya Janata Party needs this “unity” as much if not more than TDP and JSP. Politics had turned a little worse for the wear for the BJP after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Modi & Shah combo hasn’t a clue how to, and with what, to counter Gandhi’s “Nafrat ke bazaar mei Mohabbat ki dukaan”.
A tripartite alliance won’t hurt. Of course, everything is under a lid. Neither party is talking. The meeting is like it was a non-event. Whatever little is known is that Naidu wants the alliance more than the BJP, which looks like a set-up. It is not nice optics for the invincible election juggernaut. What a fall that would be! Especially after the bitter fallout between the two parties in 2019.
Since then, Naidu appeared to have faded and in a political wilderness though still in the safari suit that marked him separate and distinct from the riffraff. Chandrababu Naidu was the first of the well-dressed politicians, long before Narendra Modi found sartorial elegance in his current avatar.
That said, it’s Naidu who has been treating Modi like royalty, terming the Prime Minister a “visionary upholding the prestige and strength of India”. The former Chief Minister is keen to be Modi’s partner in “nation-building”. Last year, the TDP backed Droupadi Murmu for the President’s post. Now, the Naidu-Shah meeting has triggered talk of an alliance. The times have changed and the issue of Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh is on the backburner.
The reality is, birds of a feather are flocking together on both sides of the political aisle. The Congress is emerging as the big hope for the anti-Modi camp which the non-Congress opposition parties haven’t yet digested. They have leadership issues especially on who will be Prime Minister in a post-Modi scenario? Naidu has no such issue with the BJP, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are all that concerns Chandrababu Naidu at this point in time, which suits the BJP fine though the lean length of K Chandrashekhar Rao looks like it could eat both Narendra and Naidu for lunch, and Pawan Kalyan tasty dessert! (IPA Service)
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