The humiliating defeat to the Telugu Desam Party in the mandal parishad and zilla parishad elections in the Kuppam assembly constituency in Chittoor district a couple of weeks ago led to a complete loss of face for party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who represents this constituency.
The ruling YSR Congress party virtually dismantled the bastion of Naidu in Kuppam by winning all four ZPTCs and 79 out of 65 MPTC seats in the constituency.
Earlier, in the gram panchayat elections, too, the TDP could win only 16 out of 90-odd gram panchayats in Kuppam assembly constituency.
There could be various factors for the YSRC to sweep the local body elections in Kuppam because of the advantage of being the ruling party in the state, it has certainly sent a clear message to the people that Naidu’s citadel is crumbling and that he is fast losing his hold over the constituency, which he has been representing for three decades.
Naidu has realised that Kuppam is no longer his stronghold and he has to do something strong to regain the hold over his constituency. He knows that if he loses in Kuppam in the next assembly elections, it will be the end of the road for his political life. At the same time, he cannot shift to any other constituency.
That is why, the TDP chief has decided to get into action and prevent further damage to the party and his image in Kuppam.
He is planning to visit Kuppam for four days, starting from October 11. He would fly to Bengaluru and from there, he would reach Kuppam by road.
He would tour Kuppam municipality areas on October 11 and 12, Santipuram and Ramakuppam mandals on October 13 and Gudupalli and again Santipuram on October 14.
“He will meet the party leaders and cadre, besides interacting with various sections of people at the field level,” party sources said.
Soon after the TDP’s debacle in the panchayat elections in February, too, Naidu made a three-day visit to Kuppam and made a vain bid to undo the damage caused to the party.
The TDP cadres openly expressed resentment against Naidu for ignoring the constituency and leaving their fate to a handful of people, including Naidu’s personal secretary Manohar, constituency in-charge P S Muniratnam and local MLC G Srinivasulu.
Though these three leaders tendered their resignation owning moral responsibility for the defeat of TDP in the gram panchayat elections, Naidu did not accept them, causing much heartburn among the cadres. And that reflected in the ZPTC and MPTC elections.
It remains to be seen what Naidu would do during his upcoming visit to Kuppam and whether he would be able to stem the rot in the party. If he cannot take up any damage control exercise, it would be difficult for him to win the next election.