TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is notorious for his brazenness in overdoing things, be it in pulling down his opponents or embracing the same people later for his vested interests. This trait has earned him the nickname of the ‘ultimate Machiavelli of Indian politics’.

The other day, people of both the Telugu states watched in disbelief when the wily leader displayed all his tricks during the TDP-BJP-Janasena ‘Praja Galam’ public meeting in Chilakaluripet. Chandrababu Naidu sang paeans, eulogising Narendra Modi – the first ever such opportunity for him in the last five years – to woo the prime minister whom he publicly chastised before the 2019 elections.

But to his misfortune, the meeting ended as a flop show, thanks to a series of horrendous blunders which exposed the loopholes in organising the event. The mics conked quite frequently, especially when Modi was speaking, thus causing huge embarrassment to the TDP. Soon after the meeting, a few speculative reports claimed that a visibly upset prime minister even pulled up Chandrababu and Pawan Kalyan while expressing his severe displeasure at the lack of intent in making the event a success.

There is another piece of speculative news doing the rounds in political circles since then. It is being rumoured that Chandrababu and several of his party leaders are upset with Modi’s ‘soft-pedalling’ of the YS Jagan factor in his speech. Because of this reason, the TDP chief is reportedly being strongly advised by some leaders from his coterie that it would be better for him to avoid sharing the dais with Modi again during the campaigning phase. One cannot immediately vouch for its authenticity but there is this gossip going around that the TDP has suddenly become averse to the presence of the prime minister during the future public meetings of the alliance.

Their biggest grouse is that Modi merely made some casual remarks against YS Jagan instead of tearing him apart, just like Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan did from the podium. They are unable to digest the fact that the prime minister refrained from branding YS Jagan as corrupt. He only referred to the so-called corruption of the ministers in the YSRCP government in the state. Also, he appealed to the public to vote the NDA to power in the state and did not seek support for the TDP.

The entire TDP cadre was also left heartbroken to hear Modi claim that YS Jagan and Sharmila, as members of the same family, are like ‘two swords of the same sheath’ and that both the YSRCP and the Congress are hand in glove. The prime minister alleged that Sharmila is being used to deflect and neutralise the anti-incumbency factor for the YS Jagan’s government.

Interestingly, Modi made these claims after both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan painstakingly explained how the YSRCP chief had neglected his own sister who, as a result, was left in the lurch. In fact, both the TDP and Janasena have been using the Sharmila controversy as a potent weapon in their attempts to paint a negative image for YS Jagan in public. But the Modi comment that the duo is an ‘inseparable one’ has immediately taken the wind out of the sails of the TDP-Janasena bandwagon.

Unable to bear this unexpected humiliation, the TDP leaders are rumoured to be nudging Chandrababu towards the idea of hosting the future alliance public meetings without Modi. It is speculated that they are weighing the options of inviting other senior leaders of the BJP and NDA ministers instead and make them indulge in severe ‘Jagan-bashing’. They reportedly feel that it is important to keep alive the anti-Jagan narratives like ‘who killed babai’ and ‘betrayal of Sharmila and Sunitha’ all through the campaign phase so that they can hope to derive some political mileage in the elections.