At a time when every major political party in the country is trying to engage political strategists to work out new ideas to secure victory in the elections, Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is not able to find the right strategist to help his party in the next elections in the state.
It is now more or less confirmed that Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) has been engaged by YSR Congress party headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for the second successive term for 2024 elections and the team would start functioning from May 15.
After facing the humiliating defeat in the 2019 elections, Naidu started looking for a right strategist to work for the party.
He appointed Robin Sharma, an erstwhile colleague of I-PAC founder Prashant Kishor, as his political strategist in 2020, to take the party into the people.
However, Naidu was reportedly unhappy with the style of functioning of Robin Sharma and his ideas did not work out in the rural and urban local body elections in which the TDP faced a humiliating defeat again.
What is more, Sharma’s suggestions with regard to Ramatirtham temple incident also backfired and the TDP did not get any political mileage. Instead, Naidu was run down by the Jagan government and the YSRC.
There was also a talk that Robin Sharma was also not happy with the undue interference of Naidu’s son Lokesh in every issue. As a result, he withdrew his contract with the TDP within a year.
There were reports that Naidu had talks with another strategist – Sunil Kanugolu, who has fair understanding about the Telugu states.
Though he did not sign any agreement with the TDP, he had reportedly made some groundwork for the party, but somehow, it did not work out.
In the meantime, Sunil joined the Congress party as a consultant and is working for the party in South India, particularly in Telangana and Karnataka.
So, the situation has come back to square one for Naidu. He is not able to find anybody to help him out in the elections.
Maybe, he has decided to depend on his own party network to bring the party back to power in the state.
