Mamata Heeds KCR’s Words, Pours Water On Chandrababu’s Game Plan

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu after their closed door meeting at Nabanna, in Kolkata on Monday - Sakshi Post

By K Ramachandra Murthy

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s Kolkata visit on Monday was a damp squib. Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister, forced him to postpone the meeting of the opposition leaders earlier scheduled in Delhi on Novemer 22. In the joint media conference, both Naidu and Mamata agreed that there is a need to save the nation. They tried to present a picture of unity and amicability. But, Naidu failed to take Mamata along in his plan to make things happen before the elections in five States, including Telangana. She is understood to have made it clear that she is not in favour of projecting the Congress as the leader of the proposed alliance before the results of the elections are out. The tentative date suggested by Mamata was December 10. But it is most likely to be shifted again to a date after the counting of the votes in the five States takes place on December 11 when the standing of the Congress party would be clearly established.

The Kolkota meeting took place entirely at the initiative of Naidu who appointed himself a facilitator of a anti-BJP front. Mamata had spoken to leaders of many regional parties, including the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and concluded that having a meeting on November 22 would send wrong signals to the regional parties. TRS chief and Telangana caretaker Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) had reportedly spoken to Mamata and Satish Mishra, an advisor to Mayawati, and asked them not to do anything that would affect the prospects of his party. If the meeting is held at the behest of Rahul Gandhi and Naidu with the leading lights of the opposition participating, it would amount to extending support to the Congress-TDP alliance in Telangana. It is sure to hurt the TRS. The alacrity with which Naidu made the move after his trips to Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai has surprised political observers. Naidu’s idea was to hog the limelight by organising a bigger conclave at Amaravati, after the Delhi meet and before the elections in Telangana State, by showcasing Rahul Gandhi as the future prime minister and himself as the kingmaker.

A shrewd and no-nonsense politician, Mamata managed to see through Naidu’s game and decided to stop him in his tracks. She wanted to wait till the the results of the five assembly elections are known so that the strength of the Congress can be properly assessed. There has been a general suspicion among the regional satraps that Naidu has started the game to save his skin in Andhra Pradesh. Various surveys conducted by national TV channels in collaboration with established psephology organisations concluded that YSRCP leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s ratings are at least ten percentage points higher than that of Naidu and that the YSRCP would bag 20 out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 general elections. Sensing the steep fall in his popularity and also gauging the dip in the graph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu had launched the ‘Save TDP’ project in March this year when his party walked out of NDA. A bogey in the name of fighting against an arrogant and ‘cunning’ Modi was raised and slogans like ‘Save Nation’ and ‘Save Democracy’, which Mamata also mouthed, were part of the campaign.

The credibility of Naidu has taken a beating in the last four and half years. Having a tie-up with the BJP and sharing power with the saffron party for four years is a fact which cannot be wished away by Naidu. His strident criticism of Modi is being taken by other opposition leaders with a pinch of salt. Any talk by Naidu about saving democratic institutions will not carry conviction since he did not respect statute. He violated the anti-defection law deliberately with impunity. National leaders are aware that 23 YSRCP MLAs were bought over by Naidu and four of them were made ministers. The powers of the elected local bodies have been diluted while the Janma Bhoomi Committees appointed by him are ruling the roost. In the vote for note scam, he was caught red-handed and he had to run away to Amaravati leaving Hyderabad where he could have stayed for ten years as per the AP Bifurcation Act, 2014.

Leaders like Mamata and Mayawati are not unaware of the developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State though they may not have elaborate knowledge about the factors that influence the outcome in the ensuing elections. Both Mamata and Mayawati did business with the Congress and the BJP. They also heard KCR and understood his roadmap for a non-Congress and non-BJP federal front. Congress has no base in States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. There are many aspirants to the prime minister’s post among the opposition leaders. They are not prepared to offer the position to Rahul Gandhi on a platter. Most of the opposition leaders were comfortable dealing with Sonia Gandhi. None of them is prepared to accept Rahul as the leader of the alliance as being advocated by Naidu. Even if the Congress gets 150 seats, the other opposition parties would like to form the government headed by a non-Congress leader. They would like such a dispensation to be supported by the Grand Old Party from outside like it did in case of United Front governments headed by Deve Gowda and IK Gujral. Mamata is understood to have said the question of leadership of the front could be discussed only after the results of the elections in the five States are known and there is no point in meeting earlier thus dashing the carefully orchestrated game plan of the TDP supremo. Knowing Mamata’s mind before she met her counterpart in AP, TRS chief KCR said in an election meeting at Khammam on Monday that he would pursue the idea of the federal front once the elections are out of the way. He also ridiculed Naidu’s attempts to project Rahul Gandhi as prime minister material. Sharad Pawar is another senior leader who has been waiting in the wings for a couple of decades to occupy the highest political office in the country. He made his intentions clear earlier this month that the choice of prime ministerial candidate should not be discussed before the general elections and all the opposition leaders should collectively fight against the NDA. It is not going to be easy for Naidu to organise the opposition in the given situation.

During 1996-98, Naidu could manage things in Delhi with the help of seniors like Harkishan Singh Surjeet and M Karunanidhi. As the chief minister of united AP which had 42 Lok Sabha seats, he commanded more respect at that time. The Congress with which he had an understanding even before he became chief minister (In his coup against NT Rama Rao in 1995, Naidu was supported by the then prime minster and AICC president PV Narasimha Rao), had lost its stature since then. The idea behind Naidu’s new project is that if the Congress-TDP alliance wins in Telangana and the Congress registers victory in any two of the three important States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (Mizoram is not that crucial), he can claim that the alliance he fostered is on the upswing. It would help him in Andhra Pradesh which is likely to see TDP-Congress alliance in the general elections. But the plan was knocked down by Mamata. The future of this project depends on the performance of the Congress in the coming polls. Till then Naidu has to lie low.

Also Read: Chidambaram Counters Modi With Non-Gandhi Congress President List

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