After the humiliating defeat of the Telugu Desam Party in the recent assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, there has been a natural curiosity among political observers and also media as to what TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu would do in the coming days.
In the initial days of the election results, there was a talk that Naidu would give up his Kuppam seat and concentrate on safeguarding the party in the next five years.
Since he would be facing a lot of troubles from the new government headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, he would also focus on his energies in escaping from these troubles.
However, Naidu decided to stay back in Amaravati, don the role of opposition leader and face the mighty YSR Congress party.
Apparently, that is the only way he can protect his party cadre and give them a hope that the party would regain its lost glory one day or the other.
At the national-level, however, there is little for Naidu to play any role as the Bharatiya Janata Party registered huge victory and the opposition parties in a shambles.
The Congress is in an irreparable shape, as it could get just one-sixth of seats what the BJP got in the parliament elections. And so, Naidu has no scope to bring all the opposition parties together again.
Now, the latest talk is that Congress president Rahul Gandhi is looking up Naidu to revive his party at least in Andhra Pradesh.
He reportedly called the TDP chief recently and suggested to him that both the TDP and the Congress work together in the coming days to take up agitations and dharnas on issues of public concern in the state.
But one wonders whether Naidu would get any additional benefit in working with the Congress, which got just 1.29 per cent of votes in AP, which is less than the votes polled under NOTA (1.48 per cent).
Moreover, it might lead to further dissensions in the party!
