The party that ruled Andhra Pradesh for about 16 years is now facing the
threat of "existential crisis" in the Telangana region, once
considered its stronghold.
Reason: it's ambivalent stand on the separate statehood demand.
The TDP and its chief N Chandrababu
Naidu's repeated assertions that "we are not against Telangana" have
failed to win confidence of the people.
Results of by-elections to 18 Assembly constituencies -- that were fought
solely on the Telangana plank -- in the region in 2010 and now, hold mirror to
the fact that people had totally rejected the TDP as the principal opposition
could not win a single seat.
In the 2009 elections, the TDP managed to win 39 out of the 119 Assembly
seats in Telangana as part of the "Grand Alliance
Subsequently, five MLAs quit the party of which four joined the TRS and
won the by-elections. The other legislator -- Nagam Janardhana Reddy -- too emerged
victorious as an Independent in the bypoll now.
That the party could not win deposit in at least 15 seats in all these
by-elections depicts its pathetic position.
There is no love lost for Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K
Chandrasekhar Rao among the people of the region but singularly targeting and
branding him as the villain of Telangana did not help the TDP in any way,
particularly in the current round of bypolls in six segments.
The TDP leaders, who launched a separate Telangana Forum within the
party, played every trick in their bag to showcase that they indeed were the
real "warriors" for statehood but to no avail.
Chandrababu's "two eyes" theory on Telangana and
Andhra-Rayalaseema too did not cut any ice with people here.
On the contrary, KCR succeeded in making people believe that it was only
because of Chandrababu Naidu that the Centre went back on its announcement on
creation of a separate state.
That, in a way, sealed the TDP's fate.
The TDP chief, however, is not ready to buy any arguments against his
party. "Our situation improved considerably compared to the past
(by-elections). We could convince people to some extent on our party's stand on
Telangana," Chandrababu claimed, in reaction to the polls results.
The misery for TDP may not end with Telangana as it faces yet another
formidable challenge in the by-elections to 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat
in Andhra-Rayalaseema in the next few months.
Like the TRS in Telangana, the fledgling YSR Congress of Kadapa MP Y S
Jaganmohan Reddy could spell doom for the TDP, in the by-elections to begin
with.
Chandrababu doesn't miss any chance to lament that he could not return to
power in 2009 only because of the Praja Rajyam Party (which no more
exists).
He could now blame the TRS and later the YSRC for his continued political
travails.