The indication given by Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu about the possibility of early elections to the state assembly makes one wonder whether Naidu has forgotten the history.
Addressing the party functionaries meeting going on for the last two days, Naidu hinted that there is a possibility of advancing the elections by at least six months, co-terminus with the Lok Sabha elections. They might be held in December 2018 and hence, the party workers to be prepared to face the early elections.
Naidu seems to have forgotten that whenever there were early elections to the assembly, especially when the TDP was in ruling, the party has lost the power.
It happened with TDP founder-president N T Rama Rao, who went in for advanced elections for the first time in 1989, though he still had one more year to go. And the party lost to the Congress.
And in 2004, too, Naidu who was in power then, advanced the elections by seven months and the TDP faced a humiliating defeat in the hands of the Congress party led by Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. The TDP could get just 45 assembly seats out of 294.
Interestingly, whenever the Congress held the elections on time, the TDP either got the increase in number of assembly seats or came to power.
So, it is nothing but natural to assumed that Naidu might lose power, if he goes in for early elections. It is better for him to drag the elections as long as possible!
