The arrest of Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged skill development scam is learnt to have demoralised the party leadership in the state.
At the same time, it is also believed to have caused rumblings in the party as many leaders and cadres are of the view that there is no proper guidance and leadership to the party to step up the fight aggressively against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh has been sitting in New Delhi and he landed in Vijayawada only on Thursday night. He is more worried about his own fate, as he has to appear before the CID authorities for his alleged involvement in the Amaravati inner ring road alignment scam.
So, the party has become virtually rudderless. TDP’s Andhra unit president K Atchannaidu, who is supposed to take control over the party activities and give a new direction to the party, has confined himself to addressing press conferences, rather than leading the party from the front in taking up agitations.
Even Lokesh and Naidu’s other family members are said to be unhappy with Atchannaidu for his indifferent attitude. Against this backdrop, there is a talk that Naidu might drop Atchannaidu as the president of Andhra TDP.
There are rumours that Atchenna may be replaced shortly by senior leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu. It may be recalled that Yanamala met Naidu in the Rajahmundry central jail a couple of weeks ago and was said to have discussed the party’s affairs in detail.
Source said Chandrababu Naidu had not been happy with Atchannaidu after the latter made some adverse comments. Though the remarks were not made in public, a video on this went viral much to the chagrin of the party high command.
The latest talk is that the state president who took charge in 2020 from Kala Venkata Rao who also hails from his native Srikakulam district, had let down the party by his failure to organise state-wide agitations and protests against Chandrababu’s arrest.
Atchan Naidu’s rivals within the party are also said to insist on replacing him immediately with senior leader so as to face the 2024 elections with confidence.
It remains to be seen what Atchannaidu has to say about the plan to drop him form the post.