Andhra Pradesh former Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu is the kind of person who never changes, despite the changing political landscape around him. He clings to the same outdated and obsolete ideas.
Looking back at history, in 2005, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the Chief Minister at the time, advised Chandrababu Naidu to consider the death of Paritala Ravi as the end of factionalism in Rayalaseema and not to give MLA tickets to any of Paritala's family members or relatives any further. YSR also stated that he wouldn't encourage anybody from Maddelacheruvu Suri's side politically, effectively ending factionalism in the region.
Staying true to his word, YSR ignore Maddelacheruvu Suri family, but Chandrababu left deaf ear to YSR's words and gave the ticket to Paritala Suneeta and fielded her.
However, from 2005 to 2014, as long as the Congress was in power, there were no faction-related deaths in Rayalaseema. But when the state was bifurcated, and Chandrababu became Chief Minister, factional deaths resumed in the region, continuing until YS Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister.
The moral of the story here is that when something unwanted needs to be permanently removed, leaders on both sides should take stern action by not encouraging negative forces politically.
Now, the point is that Chandrababu has encouraged Mahasena Rajesh, Kolikipudi Srinivas Rao, and Raghu Rama Raju, who are negative forces in politics, being social media influencers.
In fact, there are social media influencers on the YCP side as well, like Punch Prabhakar, who were not given much attention by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. There was Mahesh Kathi earlier, who tried to attract the attention of the ruling YCP with his social media attacks and trolls on the TDP, but he too was not encouraged politically, even though he expected the Chittoor MP seat at that time.
The point is simple- if such people are encouraged, it sets a precedent that those who attack opponents on social media in the most vulgar way possible will be given tickets to contest. Such a bad precedent would be detrimental not only to political parties but also to society.
Many may take the examples of Kodali Nani or Roja here. But they are politicians who tend to speak anything like that of Ayyannapatrudu and Bandaru Satyanarayana on TDP's side. They are not social media influencers.
Now, there are no social media activists who are voluntarily criticizing the TDP other than Punch Prabhakar. There used to be many before, but now the count has almost become nil as many understand that it would yield nothing. Those who are trolling with memes and serious verbal attacks are paid social media members doing it as a job, but voluntary social media activists with vested interests are not seen now.
Mahasena Rajesh is the one who branded himself as an SC warrior but became notorious with the way he talks.
Kolikipudi Srinivas is the one who lives under the guise of an activist in the Amaravathi Movement but goes to the extent of calling for the beheading of a film director and getting rewarded with Rs 1 Cr.
Raghu Rama Raju is financially rewarding these two candidates to face the coming elections. He is a kind of politician who enjoys the position of an MP from a party he criticizes severely and has never met his constituents who voted for him in the last five years. He is more known as a social media commentator to the public than as an MP.
Chandrababu's strategies are all outdated and repugnant. Despite the TDP-Janasena alliance, out of the 120 names announced, only 10 were Kapus. Yes, that's shocking to see the kind of justice being done to Kapus with this alliance. What is even more shocking is that out of these 120, 21 are Kammas and 17 are Reddies. So, how should Kapus feel now?
Chandrababu never changes. Pawan Kalyan, who had an alliance with TDP, is answerable to Kapus for the kind of treatment extended to Janasena.
Setting that aside, politics is evolving. People are becoming increasingly aware with the rise of social media. CBN's traditional approach to handling politics yields no positive outcomes. He needs to think like his opponent and make a stronger impact than them to garner voter acceptance. But is that feasible for him?
Well, one must have the intention in the first place to make anything possible. Assuming that everything is known only to him would deal a fatal blow to his prospects.
Usha Chowdhary
