Hyderabad: Hard days are ahead for Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu after losing the elections, as he faces a trio of strong rivals.
With YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy coming in as Chief Minster, and K. Chandrasekhar Rao as Chief Minister of Telangana state and Prime Minister Narendra Modi retaining power at the Centre, Mr Naidu is surrounded by some very strong opponents. During the election campaign and later, too, Mr Naidu had targeted this trio and had gone as far as challenging them to come together and fight him. Now it may be payback time.
Some political observers feel this trio may dig up old cases against Mr Naidu to create further problems for him in the coming days. The YSRC has alleged corruption in various issues concerning Mr Naidu.
In recent times, Mr Naidu has distanced himself from several political parties and bureaucrats. At national level he made strenuous efforts to prevent a second coming of Mr Modi Minister by trying to form an anti-BJP coalition. He took on the Election Commission as well. His remarks about AP Chief Secretary L.V. Subramanyam, who was appointed by the Election Commission, were not well received in the top echelons of the bureaucracy.
How Mr Naidu will face these problems will be interesting to watch. His immediate task will be to prevent his party MLAs from defecting and persuade party leaders and cadre to stay with the party for the next five years.
In recent days defections have become common in every political party. It’s a boon to Mr Naidu that Mr Reddy will not admit any MLA into his party unless he resigns from the Assembly. Many may not be ready to do this after spending huge amounts of money to win the seat. To spend more money to win a byelection may not suit the MLAs. Mr Naidu had admitted about 23 YSRC MLAs into his party and made some of them ministers.
