For quite some time, Telugu Desam Party led by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of firing at him from the shoulders of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
At every meeting, he has been pointing out an alleged nexus between the BJP and the YSRC.
The BJP has been trying for an opportunity to turn tables on Naidu to prove that he has a secret understanding with the Congress party and that was the reason why he was targeting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The first opportunity came when Naidu hobnobbed with the Congress bosses Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy a couple of months ago.
Now, with the Congress backing the no-confidence motion moved by the TDP in Lok Sabha and Rahul Gandhi expressing sympathies with Naidu during his speech, the BJP decided to go all out against Naidu.
Surprisingly, the party fielded Naidu’s sister-in-law and former Union minister D Purandeswari to attack him for being hand in glove with Congress party.
She alleged that Naidu had gone to Delhi only to thank Congress leaders for supporting no-confidence motion.
“By joining hands with the Congress, Naidu has betrayed the soul of party founder N T Rama Rao,” she said.
But the TDP did not lose much time in launching a counter-attack on Purandeshwari.
“It is ridiculous on the part of Purandeshwari to talk about NTR’s soul. Being the daughter of NTR, she was the first one to join the Congress party and enjoyed big positions in the Congress government at the Centre from 2004 to 2014.
She ditched the same Congress which gave her political life and jumped into the BJP after the Congress lost its glory,” a TDP leader commented.
In any case, Naidu himself did not completely rule out the possibility of joining hands with the Congress at least in post-poll scenario.
He made it clear that there is no question of joining the NDA again even if the BJP approaches him later. But, at the same time, when asked whether he would join the Congress bandwagon, he said it was a hypothetical question.
In a slip of the tongue, however, Naidu said the Congress was much better than the BJP!
