When Bharatiya Janata Party MLC and prospective president of party’s Andhra Pradesh unit said Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu might face another Alipri experience, it raised many eyebrows.
The TDP leaders obviously alleged that the BJP leader was threatening Naidu that there would be an attack on his life on the lines of Alipiri attack by the Maoists in October 2003.
They said the BJP would not hesitate to eliminate Naidu who had become a thorn in the flesh of the BJP leadership.
However, Veerraju is learnt to have recalled Alipiri episode in a different context.
Sources say in 2003, Naidu sought to gain sympathy from the people following the Maoist attack on him at Alipiri at the foothills of Tirumala.
After the incident, the TDP people used to arrange long queues of people at his Jubilee Hills residence and make them call on Naidu.
Students, youth and women used to stand in long queues to give him bouquets and flowers to him, wishing him speedy recovery.
Apparently, Naidu thought he had gained a lot of sympathy from the people. And he advanced the assembly elections by six months. However, the people who were already angry with his rule, voted him out of power, bringing the Congress party to power.
This time, too, Naidu seems to be adopting the same strategy. Taking advantage of the injustice meted out to Andhra Pradesh and denial of the special category status to AP by the Centre, Naidu thought he would seek sympathy from the people.
The latest day-long Dharma Porata Deeksha was part of this sympathy-seeking strategy.
Here, too, the TDP leaders mobilised huge crowds, who were made to pass in a queue to greet Naidu who was on fast. And he greeted them with a smile.
May be he thought this deeksha would fetch him a lot of mileage in the next elections. But, there is every possibility that this strategy might boomerang like the Alipiri attack.
And that is what Somu Veerraju was saying!
