The Telugu Desam Party in Telangana exists only in name. Devoid of drive and will to make a comeback, its unabated slide into the depths of despair is disheartening the Party loyalists. Yet, Chandrababu Naidu is going through the motions of reviving the emaciated Telangana TDP. When even the whole-hearted efforts are falling flat these days, it is hopeless to expect half-hearted attempts to yield results. It seems just an endeavor to kill time. The Telugu Desam Party which was once unassailable in Telangana has now lost its mojo. The TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao who earlier was a TDP leader, naturally had strong friendships with the party’s senior leaders all over Telangana. It eventually proved highly detrimental to the TDP in this region. Sensing bright chances of TRS coming to power, many TDP leaders joined hands with KCR even before the elections and those remaining with TDP did the same later.
A Historic Blunder
By the time 2018 Telangana Assembly Election schedule was announced, the TDP was already in ICU. Moreover KCR, by pre-poning elections, denied TDP the time to regroup and stage an effective electoral battle. In a bid to stem TRS onslaught, Chandrababu entered into an opportunistic alliance with bitter rival Congress. Nothing good came out of it and the alliance went bust after the polls. Chandrababu’s tie-up with the Congress proved to be a historic blunder and both parties turned out to be losers.
After the poll debacle, Chandrababu seem to have abandoned Telangana TDP totally. Presently he is unable to concentrate fully on the Party’s revival in the region. Recently, after hoisting the national flag on Independence Day, Naidu held a Zoom conference with the party’s Telangana leaders. He instructed them to form a 90-member executive committee to revitalize the party. L Ramana, the party’s Telangana Chief and seniors like Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy raised certain public issues in the meeting but nothing seemed to have moved after that.
Compared to the TDP, Congress is more active in Telangana exposing TRS’s failures at every step. TDP here is in total disarray. The Great NTR also faced such dire situations in his political career but always bounced back with renewed vigor. Chandrababu, whose political career spans 40 years, is no stranger to such comebacks. He successfully overcame adversities and came out a winner many a time in the past. But, such focus and determination is totally missing now, particularly in Telangana.
Sailing on two boats
Chandrababu’s silence on Krishna waters dispute is doing no good to his party either in AP, or in Telangana. While his party’s AP leaders are denouncing KCR’s stand on Krishna waters and openly supporting Pothireddypadu project, Naidu remains tightlipped. Perhaps he fears that if he opens up, it will only harm the interests of TDP in Telangana. He should ask himself whether his silence brings back the lost glory of TDP in the region. If he adopts a pro-AP stand on the issue, will it do any more harm than now? Naidu’s indecisiveness is proving costly to TDP’s AP leaders. And there is no guarantee that this opaque attitude can bring TDP back to power in Telangana either.
When the separate Telangana movement was raging, Naidu failed to declare that Andhra Pradesh shouldn’t be split into two. Instead he clinged on to his ‘Two-Eyes’ theory without realizing that two eyes can only be useful in one body.
The TDP Telangana committee’s Saturday deliberations on the formation of a new executive would like us to believe that there is still hope for party’s revival. Sure, it is always good to be an optimist. But without exposing TRS’s numerous failures and drifting away aimlessly, the party can’t hope to recover lost ground. It should stage a relentless battle on public issues and gain people’s confidence. The party should attract devoted leaders and shed the self-serving ones. It needs full-timers not freelancers. Only an innovative agenda and determined action can generate green shoots in the bare tree i.e TDP-Telangana. And it is definitely not impossible if Naidu has his mind on it.
