Did Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu beg a person he once described as a ‘dacoit from Bihar’ to help salvage his sinking party in Andhra Pradesh in the 2024 elections? A recent comment made by former election strategist Prashant Kishor inferring Chandrababu Naidu’s brand of cunning politics is currently going viral on social media.
In a cryptic message, he sought to infer that Chandrababu Naidu maintained friendship with him even after publicly calling him a ‘Bihar dacoit’ and accusing him of making lakhs of TDP’s votes disappear in Andhra Pradesh. He claimed that the TDP chief had urged him to work for the TDP’s cause in Andhra Pradesh in 2024 election but he refused to do so as he was not in that business anymore.
Prashant Kishor opened up on his recent trip to Vijayawada to meet the TDP chief and spilled the beans on what really transpired. The poll strategist, who has floated his own political outfit in Bihar, has recently participated in India TV’s show ‘Janta ki adalat’. Rajat Sharma, the channel’s chief editor, grilled him in the ‘people’s court’ on a wide range of issues.
నన్ను బీహార్ దొంగ గా అభివర్ణించిన చంద్రబాబు ఆయన కోసం పని చేయమని, మద్దతు ఇవ్వమని ప్రాధేయపడ్డారు#NCBN #PrashantKishor #UANow pic.twitter.com/YUTPoWHN5c
— ఉత్తరాంధ్ర నౌ! (@UttarandhraNow) February 3, 2024
Raking up his meeting with Chandrababu Naidu, Rajat Sharma said, “Everyone, including your opponents and those you helped win elections, heap praises on you. But, I read about Chandrababu Naidu’s accusations against you. He claimed that you had looted them. And called you a dacoit from Bihar who made lakhs of votes in Andhra Pradesh disappear. He even said you stole their precious data sitting in Hyderabad.”
To this, Prashant Kishor retorted with a smile, “When you lose an election and the kingdom (power), there is bound to be a sense of panic and anger. But even after that, I have friendship with Chandrababu and we keep talking. He came to me and expressed his regret (for his accusations) to which I too clarified that I have no personal enmity with him. And recently, we had a meeting where I categorically told him that I cannot do the work for his party since I’m no more in that business. I told him that I neither work for YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP (for 2024 elections) nor will be able to do the same for his party (TDP).”
The video clip posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is going viral, particularly in the two Telugu states as it exposes Chandrababu Naidu’s brand of cunning politics and hypocrisy. Though, frugal in words, Prashant Kishor’s cryptic message was still loud and clear in stating the obvious: That Chandrababu Naidu fell on his feet expressing his regrets after calling him in public a ‘dacoit from Bihar’. And that Naidu, in his desperation, did not even hesitate to seek the help of a person against whom he carried out an all-out and malicious attack during the 2019 elections.
Political opportunism without principles, Chandrababu’s trait
Chandrababu Naidu’s notoriety for political opportunism is legendary. He is perhaps the only leader in Indian politics who can publicly abuse his rivals this moment and embrace the same people the very next minute, if it suits his convenience. And what he did with Prashant Kishor – from vilifying him as a dacoit in 2019 to begging the same man when the TDP’s chips are down – is just the latest in a long list of Naidu’s betrayals.
It took everyone by surprise when Prashant Kishor touched down in Vijayawada out of nowhere a few weeks ago. It immediately sparked rumours that Chandrababu Naidu was acting in desperation to improve the dipping graph of the TDP ahead of the crucial elections. And that Prasant Kishor was being roped in to arrest this slide since the he was perceived to be the man who helped the YSRCP of YS Jagan win the 2019 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu’s son Lokesh accompanied PK in the special flight from Delhi and personally escorted him to Chandrababu Naidu’s Undavalli residence. Their favourite ‘yellow media’ went overboard in reporting the meeting. But despite all the hype, the effort turned out to be a damp squib after Prasant Kishor poured cold water on the hopes of the TDP. As a few speculative reports claimed, Prashant Kishor, during that meeting, also told Naidu that the TDP would be losing the elections for the second straight time and that his own chances in Kuppam are bleak.
PK’s latest revelation proves that his Vijayawada visit was not all that sudden and Chandrababu Naidu had been keeping him in good humour for quite some time. In one of his earlier statements, the Bihar leader buttressed this point beyond any doubt. He had earlier said that he was uninclined to meet Naidu in the first place but was goaded to do so by a ‘common friend’, whom he described as an ‘influential politician’ hailing from Andhra Pradesh.