After seeing the outcome of the municipal elections in Andhra Pradesh, the obvious question that comes up in one’s mind is whether it is an end of the road for Telugu Desam Party.
For a party that dominated the Andhra Pradesh politics for almost four decades is now facing the worst-ever crisis. The TDP has already been beleaguered with the humiliating defeat in the 2019 general elections – the party got just 23 assembly seats and three MP seat.
And now, the recent gram panchayat elections have caused a huge dent in the TDP’s base in the rural areas, the municipal election results have virtually shown that the party has lost its ground even in the urban areas.
The only man who is responsible for the party’s present pathetic position is none other than its president N Chandrababu Naidu. No doubt, it was because of Naidu that the party had grown strongly over the years with a huge cadre base, but it was his wrong strategies that led to the party’s debacle in the last two years.
Never in the past did any other opposition party fare so badly in any elections. The TDP won just two municipalities out of 75 and drew a blank in all the 11 municipal corporations in which counting took place.
It is unlikely that the TDP will retain even those two municipalities, as the YSR Congress party is all set to grab them with the help of ex-officio votes. It means, the TDP is virtually a “zero” in the state.
Undoubtedly, the same scene is going to get repeated in the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad elections and if that happens, the defeat of the TDP will be total.
What went wrong with the TDP then? Apart from wrong calculations of Naidu, the TDP leaders have not put in any effort to win the municipalities. While the YSRC leaders pumped in huge money, as they can do because their party is in power, the TDP leaders who made big money during the Naidu regime did not bothered to spend it in the elections.
Take the case of mining baron Yarapathineni Srinivasa Rao of Gurajala. He made huge money through illegal mining during the TDP regime, but he was nowhere to be seen in the municipal elections.
So is the case with Guntur MP Galla Jayadev, who got huge benefits from Naidu, but when it came to spending money on the municipal corporation elections in Guntur, he backed out and the TDP faced a big loss.
And there is also internal sabotage in many places like in Vijayawada, where the TDP leaders like Bonda Uma, Buddha Venkanna and Nagul Meera openly revolted against Kesineni Nani, whose daughter contested for Mayor post.
The TDP has 23 MLAs, of which four shifted loyalties to the YSRC. But the remaining 19 MLAs, too, did not show any interest in working for the party’s victory.
So, what is going to be the fate of the TDP now? Will Naidu have to close his shop and leave the party to wither away in the coming days? Or will he fight back and strive to regain his lost glory?
Will he make drastic overhauling of the party? Will he sideline his son Nara Lokesh and bring in new forces like Junior NTR? Will there be any revolt from Nandamuri family against Nara family? Will Kamma community desert Naidu and promote somebody else from Nandamuri family?
Well, there are all various questions that are coming up for debate. In any case, the Andhra politics is going to witness interesting turns in the coming years.