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Naidu on a mission to revive TDP’s fortunes
According to P Manohar, personal assistant of Naidu and in-charge of the constituency, the former CM would reach Kuppam at 1.30 pm on Tuesday and address a public meeting besides holding a meeting with party leaders in the evening.
After the Telugu Desam Party’s poor show in the recent local body elections, party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will go on a three-day tour to his assembly constituency Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district from Tuesday to restore what analysts say the sagging morale of the party cadre and revive his own image.
According to P Manohar, personal assistant of Naidu and in-charge of the constituency, the former CM would reach Kuppam at 1.30 pm on Tuesday and address a public meeting besides holding a meeting with party leaders in the evening.
On Wednesday, the TDP chief would visit Santhipuram and Ramakuppam mandals and participate in roadshows besides meeting party leaders. On October 14, Naidu would visit Gudupalli mandal and participate in a roadshow before leaving for Hyderabad via Bengaluru, Manohar said.
The former chief minister’s visit to Kuppam assumes significance in the wake of the recent debacle in all the local body elections in the constituency held recently. The TDP could win only three out of 65 mandal parishad (block parishad) territorial constituencies (MPTCs) and lost all the four zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs) to ruling YSR Congress party in the elections held in April, results of which were declared on September 19.
In the gram panchayat elections held in February this year, too, YSRC had won 75 out of 89 gram panchayats and the TDP had to remain content with just 14 gram panchayats.
Though the YSRC won nearly 90 per cent of the local bodies in the state, the poor show by the TDP in Kuppam in particular was a sort of personal humiliation to Naidu as the constituency is considered to be his bastion.
Naidu had earlier represented Chandragiri assembly constituency when he was in the Congress, but after he defected to the TDP established by his father-in-law and matinee idol N T Rama Rao in 1982, he moved to Kuppam in 1989 assembly elections. Since then, he has been representing Kuppam and never faced a defeat.
But after the establishment of YSRCP by his arch rival Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2011, Naidu has been gradually losing ground in Kuppam. Earlier, his victory margin had always been around 42-45 per cent in all the previous elections, but in 2014, his victory margin fell sharply to 28.81 per cent, though he became the chief minister of AP. In 2019, it declined further to 16.93 per cent.
Ever since he came to power in May 2019, Jagan has been laying special focus on Kuppam with a perspective plan to defeat Naidu in the 2024 assembly elections at any cost. In the last elections, Jagan successfully ensured the defeat of Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh from Mangalagiri constituency.
If Jagan can defeat Naidu in Kuppam in the next elections, it would be the end of the road for the TDP. “That is precisely why Jagan laid special focus on the local body elections in Kuppam and ensured that the YSRC dismantled Naidu’s citadel to a large extent,” political analyst Suresh Dharur said.
Naidu’s visit to Kuppam from Tuesday is being viewed against this backdrop. “He has realised that Kuppam is no more his stronghold and he cannot take the people of his constituency granted. If he cannot concentrate on his own seat, he may have to face the defeat in the next assembly elections,” Dharur said.
In fact, the mood of the people in Kuppam was evident during the gram panchayat elections held in February. Though these elections were held on non-party basis, the party affiliation of the local candidates was glaringly evident.
But Naidu did not take these elections seriously, thinking that the local factors might have played a role in the gram panchayats and moreover, the ruling party would always have an advantage. However, the recent mandal parishad and zilla parishad elections were an eye-opener for him, analysts say.
