NDA alternative in the making

Amaravati: Intent on taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has decided to mobilise all anti-BJP parties together on issues that concerned the people at large. Though the idea is at an incipient stage, the die has, however, been cast that the TDP would look beyond AP to play an important role in evolving a sure-fire alternative to the NDA at national level.

Naidu, by stitching together a coalition, wants to pay back Modi for the political witch-hunt that has been going on in the state now in the form of raids by the Income Tax Department. The Chief Minister, who went into a huddle with his MPs, decided to flog the Sarkaria Commission report on centre-state relations to raise the issue of how the states had been weakened systematically.

Naidu, sharing his ideas with his MPs at his Undavalli residence on Saturday, said that the TDP would organise conclaves on centre-state relations and on distress in the farm sector. Naidu also wanted the MPs to apply their mind on how Rafale deal could be exploited to the maximum extent possible to the advantage of the opposition. Naidu asked the MPs to identify socio-economic issues that have a bearing at national level to pummel Modi in the next six months and thus discredit him in the eyes of the people. He further directed them to prepare a detailed roadmap for the next six months. He said that it must include the fight against Centre, strategy to be implemented in Parliament and fighting at the national level against BJP.

Naidu explained to the MPs that replacement of the NDA at the Centre was a democratic compulsion since the BJP had turned fascist. If the TDP, whose intentions are anti-Congress, had joined hands with the grand old party because of the threat posed by the BJP which is more ominous and foreboding than the effect of the TDP adopting anti-Congress posturing.

“The BJP has betrayed the people of AP. On top of this, the saffron party leaders are attacking the TDP day and night. The BJP has colluded with YSRC in AP and TRS in Telangana with the sole intention of weakening the TDP in both the states. That Narendra Modi did not have any concern for the people of AP became evident from his indifference in implementing the promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014,” he said. Naidu told the MPs that since there is a rising tide of public disapproval of the BJP for the promises not kept, the TDP should take full advantage of it and turn all sections of people against the saffron party.

The political witch hunt that has now begun in the form of raids on TDP leaders by the Income-Tax Department officials should be explained in detail to the people. The leaders should drive home the point that the Centre would not hesitate to use its agencies, including Enforcement Directorate and CBI to go after its political rivals. “At this juncture, we have to take support from like-minded political parties which have been facing similar problems from the BJP in their respective states,” TDP supremo added.

Naidu explained to the MPs that each time the TDP entered into an alliance with other parties it was because it felt it had a responsibility to protect the institution of democracy in the state and at national level during the last three-and-a-half decades. He recalled the role played by the TDP in the Natioanl Front, United Front, NDA and now United Progressive Alliance. Though TDP is a regional party, it draws a lot of water at national level, he said.

On the raging war of words between him and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Naidu blamed Narendra Modi for the chasm that had developed between them. "I thought the past was behind us and wanted to move forward but Modi drove a wedge between us. Now KCR has turned against me. I had told KCR that since the Congress and the BJP did not have any stakes in Tamil Nadu and if both of us joined hands, we will have upper hand in southern states. KCR has sought time to express his opinion on it. After one week, KCR has asked me not to join hands with Congress in Telangana. I realised that by then KCR has walked into BJP's trap,” he said.