Is Chandrababu Naidu seeing his only hope in projecting the 2024 elections as his last hurrah at the hustings and beg for votes on that plank?
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief has been trying every trick up his sleeves to win the 2024 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh at any cost. The future of both his party and his son Lokesh, whom he desperately wants to establish as his successor, are at stake like never before. And a second straight electoral defeat will only cause a major upheaval within the TDP with the likelihood of demands for a leadership change.
This is what is giving the aging leader sleepless nights. With his son failing to prove his mettle as an effective alternative in the perception of the party cadre, Chandrababu Naidu is forced to run in his twilight from pillar to post for multiple options, both on and off the field. In a couple of months’ time, the veteran leader will be 74 years old and entering his 75th. Realising the desperate need for his party to come to power, the wily politician is banking more on devious plots and disruptive tactics rather than garnering organic support from the electorate.
Already, he has enslaved actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan to play subservient to his TDP; used the clout of his alleged coverts in the BJP to almost weave an alliance with the saffron party whose feathers he had ruffled before the 2019 elections. Simultaneously, he is known to be maintaining deep-rooted, tacit understanding with the Congress and the Left parties to use their support at his convenience. He is also widely suspected to have played his part in creating a wedge within the YS Jaganmohan Reddy family by pitting his estranged sister Sharmila against the YSRCP chief.
If these are some of his covert machinations, there are many tactics that he keeps playing with the general public to project himself unreasonably as a towering personality. Calling himself a ‘visionary’, boasting of bringing cellular phones into India and declaring himself as the undisputed architect of Hyderabad city are just some of his jaw-dropping claims in public. Self-effusive statements like these have earned him the nickname of the ultimate ‘Machiavelli of Indian politics’. He is quick to hijack credit from others’ successes while blaming opponents for his own failures.
Evoking self-pity or sympathy is another of Chandrababu Naidu’s political traits that helped him trick the people occasionally but not every time. Still, he believes in using this to the hilt in search of an instant emotional connect with the people. The Telugu states saw how the TDP chief tried to extract gold from the unsuccessful Maoist attack on his life at Alipiri in Tirupati before the 2004 elections in the erstwhile unified Andhra Pradesh. As then chief minister, he even went for early polls, hoping that the incident would help him win a second straight term. But, the electorate sided with the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, largely impressed by his historic statewide padayatra.
Crying on camera, Naidu became memes’ delight
Not so long ago, the TDP chief also cried buckets during live telecast, alleging attempts by the ruling party to damage the dignity and character of his wife Bhuvaneswari. Despite Naidu’s heart-wrenching performance on camera, there were few who took it for real. The people could see through Naidu’s gimmick to tweak facts and blame his opponents in search of some mileage for his party. As a result, Naidu’s wailing episode is remembered today only for the countless derisive memes on social media.
Despite all his conspiracies against YS Jagan, who is steadfast in his belief of fighting it alone, Naidu is still clueless on countering the mighty YSRCP. It is being talked about, though in lighter vein, that Chandrababu Naidu may well play his final card in the days to come as the crucial election draws closer. That is, to beg for votes citing his age and on the premise that this would indeed be his last elections. This may seem like a joke but Naidu has the history of taking them too seriously and playing them out in public.
With almost all the surveys so far predicting a hands-down, second straight win for YS Jagan’s YSRCP, Chandrababu Naidu may see a final resort in this bogey. In his desperation to whip up emotions and hope to ride on this sentiment, the TDP chief may well be planning to go to town, saying that the 2024 elections will be his final attempt.
In fact, he tried this refrain already once a couple of years ago. Addressing a public meeting in the AP hinterlands, the TDP chief poured out his personal feeling that the 2024 elections would be his last and that he deserved one final chance to rule Andhra Pradesh. One should not be really surprised to see him use this refrain anytime soon or closer to the polling date, as nothing is really working for him to improve the sagging image of the TDP.
It is said that Naidu plans to project himself as the chief-ministerial face to win the election first. If in power, he wishes to anoint his son Lokesh on the chief minister’s throne after half the term, just like how he made his son a minister through the backdoor in 2017. Clearly, he is chasing a wild dream when his party is staring at a second straight defeat..!