Till the other day, Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was a role model for Telugu Desam Party chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
He went to the extent of projecting her as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the country and campaigned for her party in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Naidu went to Kolkata at least half a dozen times as part of his efforts to stitch up an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition at the national level.
After the TDP’s humiliating debacle in the assembly elections and also the big loss of opposition at the national level, Naidu has lost interest in the national politics also.
However, he was in good terms with Mamata even after the elections and condemned the post-poll violence in Bengal.
But now, Naidu is said to be terribly upset with Mamata these days. Reason: She has decided to engage the services of popular political strategist Prashant Kishor for the next assembly elections in West Bengal to counter the BJP.
Prashant, as everybody knows, played a key role in the victory of YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the recent assembly elections in AP.
His team Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) came up with several programmes to target the TDP.
Prashant himself used to make strong comments against Naidu, when the latter called him a Bihari criminal. So, Naidu treats Prashant as a big enemy.
Since Mamata has signed an agreement with Prashant now, Naidu is not able to digest the same. He has learnt to have decided to keep away from any programme that involves Mamata hereafter.
