It has been more than two decades since Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu usurped power from his father-in-law and TDP founder N T Rama Rao in a midnight coup.
Though Naidu has established himself as an undisputed king of the TDP, he is yet to overcome the stigma of being a “back-stabber” of NTR and time and again, his political rivals recall the August 1995 crisis and call him: “pillanichina maamake vennu potu podichina drohi” (a betrayer, who back-stabbed his own father-in-law).
After the success of Telugu film director S S Rajamouli’s historic film series “Baahubali,” the back-stabbing of a person by his own close confidant came to the fore, reminding of NTR-Chandrababu Naidu episode.
In the film, hero Baahubali is backstabbed by his own loyalist Kattappa, whom he was calling “maamaa” (uncle).
On Sunday, Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Sunil Deodhar compared the back-stabbing of Baahubali by Kattappa with NTR being backstabbed by Naidu.
“While NTR fought valiantly with the Congress party like a Baahubali, Naidu joined hands with the same Congress party thereby backstabbing NTR’s ideals like what Kattappa did in case of Bahubali,” he said.
However, the comparison of Naidu with Kattappa did not go down well with some BJP workers.
“NTR could be compared with Baahubali, but how can Naidu be compared with Kattappa? In the film, Kattappa backstabbed Baahubali not for his personal sake but to obey the orders of the Rajamatha. He never aspired to become the king of Maahishmati. But Naidu backstabbed NTR for the sake of power and capturing the party,” a BJP leader commented.