Hyderabad: Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been re-elected unopposed again as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo to lead the 43-year-old regional party for another two years.
The announcement was made at the TDP’s ongoing annual three-day conclave Mahanadu at Kadapa on Wednesday.
Naidu, 75, has been in the saddle for three decades now, after he first took over the reins of the TDP in 1995 from his father-in-law N.T.Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR. He is also the longest-serving president of any political party in the country.
Over the years, Naidu has emerged as a four-term chief minister, a kingmaker at the centre, an efficient administrator, a reformer in several sectors like power, and a harbinger of IT, tech-enabled growth in united Andhra Pradesh.
However, from his friend-turned-foe Y.S.Rajasekhara (YSR) Reddy, later Konijeti Rosaiah to now Jagan Mohan Reddy, the frequent reference made by the CMs, opposition leaders when talking about Naidu’s rise to the top and steely grip over the TDP is the 1995 “palace coup.”
So, what is the August 1995 episode that Naidu disparagers are ever willing to refer back to?
Naidu is married to Bhuvaneswari, one of the four daughters of Telugu matinee idol and TDP founder N.T.Rama Rao. Naidu as the cinematography minister in the Congress government had come close to NTR and married his daughter in 1981.
Though he entered two years after the TDP was formed in 1982, Naidu’s organisational abilities quickly found the approval of NTR. His shrewdness first came to the fore in 1984 when NTR was “undemocratically” dethroned by partyman Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, allegedly with the Congress’s blessings in what is known as the August crisis.
Nadendla had carried out the coup, when NTR was away in the US for his heart surgery. The dismissal of the government by the then Governor Ram Lal and installation of Rao was met with nationwide disbelief and massive ‘Save Democracy’ protests by opposition leaders including that of the Left and then a fledgling BJP.
“Unable to confront the popular NTR politically, Delhi leaders conspired and undemocratically deposed NTR. The 1984 August crisis in the form of Bhaskara Rao was a testament to NTR’s fighting spirit. At the same time, the TDP was blessed with a capable young leader who stood by NTR—Nara Chandrababu Naidu. Chandrababu’s perseverance, and strategy until NTR’s strength was proven and he returned to the CM chair mesmerised NTR,” the history page on TDP’s website says.
NTR was reinstalled on 15 September 1984. Nadendla’s tenure of one-month was the shortest in Andhra Pradesh.
In recognition of Naidu’s relentless hard work, keeping the TDP MLAs safe, from poaching, camping at Nandi Hills near Bengaluru and parading them before President Zail Singh in show of strength, NTR made him the TDP general secretary in 1985.
However, as fate would have it, in 10 years, Naidu himself lead a rebellion against NTR’s authority, “in order to save the party.”
Naidu was the Andhra Pradesh finance minister when a widespread discontent in the party, primarily over NTR’s second wife Lakshmi Parvathi’s influence on the patriarch and her alleged interference in party and government affairs, escalated into a revolt in August 1995, forcing down NTR from the CM seat.
This time, Naidu camped with over 150 TDP MLAs supporting his cause at the Viceroy Hotel near the Hussain Sagar Lake. Most of NTR’s seven sons and four daughters were either silent or were seen as backing Naidu. Even his rival Daggubati Venkateshwara Rao, husband of present BJP state chief Daggubati Purandeswari, extended support to him.
Thus, eventually elected the TDP president for the first time, Naidu became the CM on 1 September 1995.
A dejected NTR accused his son-in-law of ‘droham’ (betrayal) and prepared for a state-wide tour to rally public sympathy, support. He, however, passed away in January 1996, within five months of the overthrow.
Naidu was re-elected as the CM in 1999, when his party won the polls in alliance with the BJP. The TDP lost in 2004, 2009 to Congress leader YSR’s charisma. In 2014 and 2024, Naidu became the truncated Andhra Pradesh’s CM—both times winning the polls with the BJP and the Jana Sena alliance.
Meanwhile, NTR remains a cornerstone of the TDP’s activities as seen in the naming of several government schemes after him. The TDP’s annual event Mahanadu is held this time every year to commemorate NTR’s birthday but political opponents are relentless in accusing Naidu of being a supplanter.
“If someone establishes his own party and comes to power on his own, he is called an MGR or an NTR or a Jagan. If you usurp a political party and even the CM’s chair from your father-in-law … such a person is called Chandrababu,” Jagan said at Srikakulam in November 2022, while calling his arch-rival a “backstabber.”
Naidu has maintained that NTR was ‘a god’ to him but the latter had come under the influence of an ‘evil force’ (read, Lakshmi Parvathi) and he had to revolt to save the party.
On Wednesday, following his oath as TDP chief, Naidu addressed his party men, describing himself as a mere trustee of the party. “NTR is the epitome of Telugu self-respect, an ever-lasting presence in the hearts of people. I am safeguarding the great man’s legacy while shaping the party’s future leadership,” he said.
The backdrop of the main stage are the pictures of Naidu and son Lokesh on either side of that of NTR.
The highlight of the second day of Mahanadu, coinciding with NTR’s 102nd birth anniversary, was an AI generated video address of NTR to the party leaders, workers.
“Chandrababu built a modern Cyberabad, ushering in technology and bringing in jobs fetching lakhs in salaries we never heard before,” the five-minute AI generated video says.
The reference was to what Naidu did as AP CM in late 1990s, the immediate years after taking over from NTR.
On Wednesday too, after Naidu’s re-election as the TDP chief, YSRCP leaders like Perni Venkataramaiah made uncharitable remarks on Naidu in reference to the 1995 episode, dragging in Lokesh too.
“It is very unfair but unfortunately Naidu has to bear with the ‘vennupotu apavaadu’ (accusation of backstabbing) for the rest of his political life too,” said Prof D.A.R Subrahmanyam, chairman of Guntur based Navyandhra Intellectual Forum.
On Thursday, addressing a large rally in conclusion of Mahanadu, Naidu invoked NTR and ended his speech with ‘Jai Telugu Desam and NTR Amar-rahe’ slogans.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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