From BJP to Congress and back to BJP, life comes full circle for Chandrababu Naidu

New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu seems all set to renew his ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after dumping it five years ago in 2018.

Naidu met home minister Amit Shah last week, signalling a thaw in relations between the two sides.

Naidu had in March 2018 snapped ties with the BJP and quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), of which he was once a convenor, over the demand for a special status for Andhra Pradesh in view of its bifurcation in 2014.

Their divorce was bitter as both sides resorted to no-holds-barred attacks on each other.

Naidu called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘terrorist’, and accused him of “estranging” his wife. The BJP responded by calling Naidu a “U-turn CM” who had changed his stand countless times and declared that the doors of the NDA are permanently closed for the TDP.

Naidu's party later moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha in July 2018 against the BJP government at the Centre for not granting the special status to Andhra Pradesh and over its failure to implement the assurances given to the state in the AP Reorganisation Act.

A few months later, Naidu struck an alliance with the Congress for the 2018 assembly elections in Telangana. The move turned out to be a disaster for the Congress as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), supremo and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) succeeded in building a narrative that Naidu will take control of the new state and divert all its water resources and power to Andhra Pradesh. The Congress that was poised to give a tough fight to KCR got decimated in the elections primarily due to its alliance with Naidu.

In the 2019 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu went alone and lost badly to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) as YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of his bete noire YS Rajasekhara Reddy, took over the chief minister.

Since then, Naidu has been desperately trying to revive his ties with the BJP. He met the Prime Minister after a gap of four years in August last year on the sidelines of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav national committee meeting. His son Nara Lokesh too met Shah.

From launching personal attacks against Modi, Naidu is unstoppable in praising the Prime Minister, calling him a visionary leader who has been upholding the prestige of the nation and displaying to the world the strength of India. Naidu expressed his willingness to once again associate with Modi in the nation building process.

However, Jagan has so far smartly countered Naidu in keeping the BJP in good humour. Amid boycott by as many as 19 opposition parties, the YSRCP attended the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28 with Jagan congratulating Modi for it and criticising those who skipped the function.

The central government had a day earlier approved the biggest-ever tranche of funds to Andhra Pradesh since the state’s bifurcation in June 2014. It disbursed Rs 10,460 crore as compensation for the revenue deficit the state suffered following the creation of Telangana.

With both Jagan and Naidu jostling to woo the saffron party, the BJP leadership is expected to soon take a call on its potential partner in Andhra Pradesh.