Hyderabad, April 12: With three more years to elections to capture power in the state, Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu is placed in a piquant situation as he is facing three difficult hurdles in his journey, perhaps the most critical one in his 32-year political career.
Naidu, already being weighed down by the separate Telangana demand and the YS Jagan factor in Andhra, is now beset with opposition from the very family which founded the party. The first two problems are limited to one region or the other but the rumblings of discontent in the Nandamuri family _ his in-laws _ will have an impact on the party in the entire state and definitely spoil his dream of taking the party to the power of seat again.
When YS Rajasekhara Reddy was chief minister, his government revived the Rs-2-a-kg rice scheme. Earlier, as chief minister, Naidu had wound up the subsidised rice scheme. When Reddy revived it, Naidu accused the Congress of hijacked his plans to revive the scheme.
Rajasekhara Reddy even tried to project himself as the one genuinely implementing the schemes of NTR and argued that the TDP had no bona fides to claim legacy to NTR.
After Rajasekhara Reddy’s demise, Naidu’s camp suspects that the Congress high command was using NTR’s daughter Purandeswari to check TDP’ surge by creating differences among the members of the NTR family.
Naidu, sandwiched between T and J factors, need somehow thwart the alleged meddling by Purandeswari if he has to save the party. In case he fails to surmount the challenges or fails to lead the party to power in 2014, then he will face a real challenge to his position as the party president.
As of now, TDP seniors believe that no one could lead the TDP except Naidu. But, cadres are sceptical about the future, saying no one can predict what will happen in future as politics is dynamics and keeps changing.
Indeed, the three-year journey ahead is important for Naidu to prove himself as an efficient and astute leader. Otherwise, the party will be in the danger of remaining out of power for the third consecutive term.
–Agencies