Frustration levels of the Telugu Desam Party are reaching their crescendo. Does it augur well for a political formation that has provided a direction to the national politics from the very next year of its existence for two full decades is a pertinent question that has to be thought out by its leadership. The party became irrelevant in national political arena soon after it was uprooted lock, stock and barrel in 2004 in the State.
National leaders and media reduced their attention on TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu. It has been almost 10 years since Naidu remained a regional leader. The repeated defeats in by-elections in Andhra Pradesh across all regions further relegated the TDP into the political wilderness.
Yet, with a view to keeping the pot boiling, the party kept its vilification campaign against YSR and Jagan revved up, and at times attempted to hit the YSR Congress below the belt.
Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Revanth Reddy, YVB Rajendra Prasad, Mothkupalli Narasimhulu, Varla Ramaiah, Payyavula Keshav, and the list is endless. Surprisingly, G Muddukrishnama Naidu stopped his tirade, of late. At the drop of the hat, the TDP leaders fly off the handle and spew venom against Jagan and his party.
Once, funnily they came up with a theory that Jagan’s sister was using German shoes during padayatra. They tried to give an impression to people that the ‘magic shoes’ would automatically walk and that she did not have to make any effort. If such shoes were available in the world, Chandrababu Naidu isn’t poverty-stricken not afford such shoes for his padayatra. Later, they talked about the veracity of Sharmila’s accident, but ate crow onc e she gave a counter.
The TDP bandwagon never comes up with a right and striking answer to the charge of its tacit support to the Congress government in the State. Everything is fair in war and love. So, the question of impaling the TDP on this count doesn’t make any sense.
Yet, the more the TDP and its loyalist media brays, moos, neighs, grunts, roars, squawks, squeals, and bleats against the YSR Congress, the more is the indirect support they are garnering for the fledgling party.
Yanamala Ramakrishnudu’s letter to Union Home Minister alleging that YS Jagan was using a laptop and cell phone in Chanchalguda central prison is nothing but an attempt by the TDP to cut off the communication through mulaquats between Jagan and his family and party. The TDP is developing a cold feet, as it is unable to match the political strategies being sketched by the YSRC from time to time, in spite of numerous shortcomings and a moral stigma haunting its leadership.
This is not the first time that Yanamala demoed his worry over the jail issues. Recently, no less a person than Chandrababu Naidu himself spoke about blue-films being watched by inmates in the prison, obliquely giving a meaning that Jagan was doing so. The Director-General of Prisons and Correctional Institutions Krishna Raju retorted the former Chief Minister’s statement. The Arabian scents in the form of explanations did not sweeten the hands of the party on this issue.
TDP tactfully guides its political missiles. It calls a dog mad before killing it. This is what it wants to do in the case of Jagan. By constantly raising a bogey against the ‘activities inside the prison’ and making people doubt the genuineness of administration, the TDP thinks it can have Jagan shifted from Chanchalguda to Tihar, only with a view to projecting him as a hardcore criminal in the public eye. It would not be a surprise if the TDP would prefer a litigation on this issue and take it to the courts also. The repeated charges on jail administration, Jagan’s stay and jail manual and facilities would prove counter-productive, if things turn against those leveling allegations.
The YSRC, on its part, countered Ramakrishnudu’s standpoint challenging the TDP to go to jail and personally note down as to who were all meeting him and whether the rules were being abused at all. Shobha Nagi Reddy’s repartee was surely so much pungent that it isn’t easily digestible to the top brass of the TDP.
It doesn’t augur well for a party that claims to have played and aims to play a national role after the next elections.
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