After two rounds of Panchayat Polls and as the state plunged into the full election mood with the starting of the third phase and release of schedule for the municipal elections TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had set new mode, keeping himself away from the election mode.
He had been focusing more on elections, addressing the media every day and making allegations on the ruling party on poll code violations, besides tall claims on the party’s victory in the first two phases of the panchayat poll.
Though he was expected to be in full political mode with municipal elections too starting, he had shifted his party’s agenda to the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant agitation.
The municipal elections would be held on the party basis where the winners and losers are counted on the party wise. This would make the party’s voter base clear, after the two years of general elections.
Naidu had claimed 38 per cent of vote bank for the party in the panchayat elections, which were fought on a non-party basis.
If he is to be believed, his 38 per cent vote base would come out clear in the municipal elections.
By shifting his agenda from the elections to the agitation, one doubts whether Chandrababu Naidu had accepted the defeat and trying to find an excuse in the guise of the steel plant movement.
The TDP chief stood as a strong politician in the panchayat elections asking the rank and file of the party to file nominations.
But, in the municipal elections, he seems to have given up the fight by setting a different tone for the rank and file.