It’s been 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has reshuffled his cabinet for the first time and still the tremors could be felt with mixed reaction from party insiders and a total backlash from Opposition parties.
Especially anointing of defected YSRCP MLAs into the cabinet has kicked up a major storm in political, media circuits given that Naidu himself had strongly found fault with Telangana CM KCR when he had made Talsani Srinivas Yadav (who won as MLA on TDP ticket) a minister. Even as the old videos of Naidu lashing out at KCR for the act are being played by TV channels and they’re shared widely on social platforms, TDP is visibly unfazed by the criticism.
While it’s clear that Naidu & his team have already prepared for this backlash and rubbing it off without paying much attention to it, the big question is how its ally and supporter Janasena would take this. Given that Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan has been vocal about ethical, moral politics, certainly this is not the move he would welcome.
With this act, Naidu has pushed Pawan into a state that he has to blame the opportunistic politics of TDP and distance himself from the ruling party which seems to have achieved very little ever since it came to power in 2014. Amidst accusations and allegations that Pawan has been a ‘dummy’ in the hands of Naidu, it’s the time for Pawan to prove all of them wrong by exposing TDP. It’s clear that TDP is just surviving with the repeated faults of Opposition and its leader YS Jagan. And it can’t be continued for long as at anytime people would feel sympathise with Jagan and miffed with TDP’s tall claims that’s lacking proof on the ground.
However, there’s a small and smart tactic played by Naidu. By including Bhuma Akhila Priya into the cabinet who lost her father Bhuma Nagi Reddy in an untimely death, Naidu has made it difficult for Pawan who has openly condoled and said Bhuma was close to him during the times of PRP. If Pawan directly opposes the move of including defected YSRCP leaders into the cabinet, invariably he ends up opposing Bhuma Akhila Priya’s anointment of minister which isn’t comfortable for Pawan.
Barring this, it’s the time for Pawan to point out the holes in TDP government for which he rallied in 2014 elections. The big question is will Pawan question Naidu? Will Pawan take clear stand against TDP?
