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Journalism of Courage
With the simultaneous Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections still several months away, the dramatic arrest of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and ex-chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu by the state police may not be of much consequence for the ruling YSRCP, led by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, as well as the TDP in the final analysis.
Naidu was arrested early on Saturday for his alleged involvement in a multi-crore scam involving the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation. He was arrested at Nandyal and taken to Vijayawada to be produced before an Anti-Corruption Bureau court. His arrest has garnered a lot of sympathy from his supporters, who tried to come out on the roads to protest but were prevented by the police.
The state police has also put all senior TDP leaders under house arrest. So they are unable to organise any protests. The TDP has sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the “illegal” arrest of Naidu, which it has called “politically motivated”. The TDP MP from Vijayawada, Kesineni Srinivas, has sent letters to them in this regard.
Naidu’s arrest has taken place while CM Jagan has been away in London on a personal visit. With the synchronised state and national elections slated for April-May next year, any public sympathy for the TDP supremo might be “short-lived”, observers say. In the 2019 Assembly elections, the YSRCP swept to power bagging 151 of the state’s total 175 seats with the TDP’s tally plunging to just 23.
On November 17 last year, Naidu had made an emotional appeal at Kurnool that the 2024 polls will be his last if people do not vote his party to power. “Will you bless me? If I have to continue in politics, then you have to elect the party to power. If I have to stay in politics, go to the Assembly, and ensure justice for Andhra Pradesh then you have to elect TDP in 2024. Unless you ensure our victory in the next election, that may be my last election,’’ he had said.
In November 2021, Naidu had broken down in the Assembly, vowing that he will not enter the House until his party’s return to power, even as he accused Jagan’s ministers of verbally abusing his wife Bhuvaneshwari and launching personal attacks on him.
Since November last year, Naidu has been touring the state, addressing public meetings. Coining the slogan “Quit Jagan, save AP”, Naidu started off with public meetings in Kurnool and Eluru. The turnout at these rallies is often quite large. He has also been holding meetings and roadshows as part of his “Idemi Kharma Mana Rashtraniki (Why is our state facing this fate)” programme, which question the policies of the YSRCP government and the “abysmal plight” of the state.
In two incidents, on December 28 last year followed by another on January 1, stampedes occurred at Naidu’s meetings, prompting the Jagan government to put curbs on them and ban his road shows at certain places.
Naidu had walked out of the BJP-led NDA in 2018 in protest against the Centre not granting special category status to Andhra after bifurcation. However, he has now been trying to get back into the NDA fold. The Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief, K Pawan Kalyan, has been negotiating with the BJP leadership over the proposal to form a BJP-TDP-JSP alliance in AP to defeat the YSRCP. While the BJP has warmed up to the idea, the party has not yet given any indication that it would agree to it. Naidu’s arrest may also not soften up the BJP which is maintaining equidistance from the TDP and the YSRCP.
Meanwhile, the Andhra police CID’s Additional DG N Sanjay said that the scope of the investigation into the skill development scam would be widened to include other allegations against Naidu in the alleged insider trading in the Amaravati land case, which could spell more trouble for Naidu.
On its part, the YSRCP remains well-entrenched in the state, with the CM even pushing the YSRCP leaders to aim to defeat Naidu in his own Kuppam constituency in the 2024 election and “decimate” the TDP. In the 2019 election, Naidu’s vote percentage in Kuppam for the first time slipped below 60 per cent to 55.18 per cent, with some votes split between the JSP and the BJP candidates while the YSRCP’s K Chandramouli received 38 per cent votes.
Observers say that Naidu is hoping that if the TDP wins in 2024, he can pass on the baton to his son Nara Lokesh, who was a minister in his cabinet from April 2017 to May 2019. The TDP’s national general secretary, Lokesh is currently on a 4,000 km-long padyatra, “Yuva Galam (voice of youth)”, which started from Kuppam in Chittoor district on January 27. With Naidu elevating his son Lokesh to the forefront of the TDP leadership, senior party leaders gave a ringing endorsement to Lokesh’s padyatra, claiming that it would be the game changer in the party’s bid to dislodge the Jagan government.
Dismissing suggestions that the YSRCP would politically gain from arresting Naidu, YSRCP general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy claimed it was “not politically motivated”. “Chandrababu is alleging vendetta, given he was not named in the first CID FIR. But not naming him in the first FIR itself shows the honesty and integrity of the investigation agencies. This proves there was no political interference in the investigation. He can’t escape from this, and if someone thinks he is above the law because he was a former CM, he is wrong!” Sajjala said.
“Naidu was arrested for committing economic offences. Accusations of political vendetta are wrong, he was detained in the daylight, following all legal procedures. Some of the TDP leaders were restricted by the police in order to avoid any law and order problems. These leaders were obstructing the police in doing their job,” the YSRCP leader said.
