Not long ago, Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was considered a tough task master in the party.
Having built up the party from grassroots level to the entire state since the days of his father-in-law N T Rama Rao, Naidu had a complete grip over the party for a quite a long time.
It is an undeniable fact that the party could return to power even after being out of it for 10 years between 2004 and 2014, only because Naidu had been able to sustain the party cadre which was very strong at all levels.
However, in the last five years, Naidu seemed to have lost control over the party.
In his eagerness to promote his son as his heir apparent, Naidu ignored his responsibility of strengthening the organisational network, as a result of which the party leaders have behaved independently, indulged in huge corruption and it finally resulted in the humiliating defeat for the party in 2019 elections.
Even after the debacle, the TDP chief seems to be clueless as to how to rebuild the party.
With age catching up fast on him, he is not able to focus much on the party structure, while Lokesh has become unacceptable to leaders and cadre.
Naidu remained helpless as four of his party MPs defected to the BJP and many other leaders at various levels are following suit.
He has not been able to control the leaders like Kesineni Nani and Buddha Venkanna who have been washing their dirty linen in public.
He was not able to say a single word when leaders like J C Prabhakar Reddy said the TDP was ready to be merged with the BJP, as it had no future.
Except a handful of leaders around him, nobody is coming to meet him and discuss party affairs. He has become a virtual loner in the party.
One wonders whether Naidu would be able to sustain the party for another five years, given his present style of functioning!
