Battlelines in Babudom

Equidistance begets distance, or so Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is discovering with every passing day. His recent signal to the BJP that he is prepared to play ball, led to his high profile industries minister, Basheeruddin Babu Khan, deciding to pack his bags, followed two days later by former TDP Rajya Sabha MP Kaleelur Rehman. Now comes news that the CPI and the CPIM have called it a day, signalling an end to their long and fruitful alliance with the TDP. The state unit of the CPI, which Naidu helped to a Rajya Sabha seat recently, has been forced to fall in line with the wishes of the party8217;s national executive.

Naidu is not exactly a lost child in the world of wicked politics. But what has kept him from casting his lot entirely with the BJP was not a closely-guarded secret, either. It was the fear of losing a large minority vote and, consequently, valuable Left support. But he should have known that trying to keep open diametrically opposite tactical options could be a bit liketrying to walk the tightrope with both hands tied. Politically, the Telugu Desam Party chief today suffers from an existential crisis. His talk of remaining quot;neutralquot; between the BJP and the Congress just did not carry conviction with those who wished him to toe the secular line. His stance seemed to them only insignificantly short of an outright embrace of the BJP, although Naidu had clarified on numerous occasions that it was the exigencies of the situation, and the TDP8217;s sworn opposition to the Congress, that had forced him to support the BJP-led coalition. But his move to instal his nominee, G.M.C.Balayogi, for the Lok Sabha Speakership, more than any other, indicated that Naidu was more than open to doing business with the BJP.

All this posturing and counter-posturing has some significance for Andhra Pradesh politics. From all indications, the state is soon going to witness what may be its most major realignment of political forces since the founding of the TDP by Naidu8217;s father-in-law, N.T.Rama Rao.If the TDP strikes a tacit alliance with the BJP, the latter for the first time in its history gets a significant presence in the state. Of course, this requires the state unit of the BJP to overcome its inhibitions about an electoral alliance with the TDP which it had hitherto treated as no less of an enemy than the Congress, as its campaigning in the recent Lok Sabha elections demonstrated. Andhra Pradesh8217;s present political scenario has implications for politics at the Centre, with the United Front fading out and the bipolar nature of the polity emerging. At one time, regional parties had expected to play a larger-than-life role at the Centre simply by keeping a convenient quot;equidistancequot; from all major political parties and formations. No longer.