Is Chandra Babu tactically preparing his party, his cadre and the voters to gain a hold on people's emotions prior to elections? Yes, say sources from the TDP.
It's barely been a fortnight since TDP has withdrawn its support from NDA, albeit reluctantly.
Well, now, Babu is worried about the repercussions and the character assassination that any inquiries would do to his decades old political career.
Despite some top leaders in the country being indicted in high-level corruption charges over the years under various governments, Chandra Babu has managed to remain unscathed till now.
But the equations have changed drastically in the last couple of weeks and TDP and BJP leaders have been sparring rather openly and washing their dirty linen in public, now.
Going by Lalu Prasad Yadav's fodder scam case and the 2G case in neighboring Tamil Nadu, there is anticipation that the central government will strike back anytime soon at Chandrababu and his men.
According to TDP sources, Chandra Babu has already shared his concerns with his ministers during tele-conferences and asked them to be prepared for a backlash in the form of CBI enquiries.
The BJP government is most likely to target Babu, Lokesh and some ministers during the 'clean-up' act and the fact is that the TDP is gearing up to handle the entire issue in the best possible way.
The first step in this direction is Chandra Babu's new-found 'need' to find sympathy among masses, say his party insiders.
Apparently, that is the latest single-point agenda of his public speeches these days, wherein he has been mentioning time and again that BJP-YSRCP-Jana Sena have come together to fight him and his party.
If BJP government does start CBI enquiries as is being reported, then TDP will surely cry foul, saying that it is all a part of revenge-seeking tactics by the Centre.
But wouldn't it be a self-defeating exercise as TDP has been a poll ally till recently for the very party that it is now at loggerheads with?
Also, the biggest question is, why is Chandra Babu worried about enquiries if his slate is clean?
Be it the Pattiseema project or Polavaram or Amaravathi Swiss Challenge, or buying solar power or the land scam in Vizag -- if Babu and his partymen are not part and parcel of siphoning and money laundering activities -- why is Babu agitated to begin with?
Surely, he has a cause for concern. It means he is worried about the murky details being made public.
Meanwhile, a senior officer in the TDP government said that the BJP government must come up with a special 'plan of action' to tackle the strategy of TDP of actively using media resources to garner and stoke public sentiment.
It would be best if BJP took immediate steps to counter it effectively, says the senior official, who for now wants to remain unnamed.
