The meeting between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP National President N Chandrababu Naidu with Congress President Rahul Gandhi on November 1 has evoked sharp criticism from rival parties especially the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party and the AP unit of the BJP.
TRS leader and Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) likened the meet to the joining together of an old fox and a cunning fox. Addressing a Weavers' meet at Sircilla town on Friday, KTR said, "Naidu wrote 30 letters to the Centre in the last four-and-a-half years. His aim is to stop Telangana irrigation projects. Now an old fox like Congress and a cunning fox like Chandrababu joined together to defeat KCR. Why should KCR be defeated? Is it for his constant services to Telangana people to improve the lot of farmers, weavers, women and poor families? The new friendship of TDP-Congress is like that of a snake and a mongoose. They want to plunge Telangana into darkness."
KTR said that by joining hands with Congress for the first time since TDP was founded in 1982, Chandrababu Naidu was 'backstabbing' TDP founder NTR for a second time. He was referring to the coup in 1995 when Naidu took control of the TDP Legislature Party and became AP Chief Minister by dethroning his father-in-law NT Rama Rao.
KTR's criticism stems from the fact that Naidu has played a key role in sewing together an anti-TRS alliance in the form of 'Mahakutami' (Grand Alliance) ahead of the Telangana elections next month. The Mahakutami comprises of the Congress, TDP and the Professor Kodandaram Reddy Telangana Jana Samithi. TRS leaders have accused Naidu of waging a proxy war using Congress as a mere puppet to prevent CM K Chandrasekhara Rao from returning to power with the ultimate goal to destabilise Telangana state as a whole.
BJP in Andhra has also hit out at its former ally Naidu. Rajya Sabha member and BJP Central Committee member GVL Narasimha Rao, who is concentrating on AP now, has termed the Naidu-Rahul meet as a 'Save TDP' meeting rather than a 'Save Nation or a Save Democracy' meet.
Narasimha Rao said that Naidu made two visits to Delhi in less than a week which only exposed his panic and desperation to save TDP in the upcoming elections. And to save face in Telangana elections, Naidu is stooping to any level to get a mere 14 out of 119 seats allotted for his party from the Congress and the TDP chief is ready to spend Rs 500 crore there, Rao alleged.
Jana Sena Party chief and actor Pawan Kalyan said he had supported Naidu-BJP alliance in 2014 elections only to stop Congress from coming to power in AP and now Naidu has punctured the anti-Congress agenda and spirit by taking a U-turn. Pawan questioned the political propriety and integrity of Naidu by joining their once arch-rival Congress.
“In a way, Naidu has now returned to where he began in his political career,” Pawan Kalyan quipped, referring to the AP CM's political roots. Naidu was Youth Congress local unit president prior to becoming MLA on a Congress ticket from Chandragiri in 1978 at the age of 28.