A banner story published by popular English daily Deccan Chronicle on Monday kicked up a storm in Andhra Pradesh politics, for it has thrown up a completely paradoxical situation in the state.
According to the report, the Telugu Desam Party is all set to rope in Prashant Kishor, founder of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and rated as one of the top political and electoral strategists in the country, for the forthcoming elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Stating that the talks between Naidu and Prashant are at an advanced stage, the news report said the TDP chief took the help of Trinamul Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to help the TDP in the coming elections.
The report said the talks, which began in June 2021 after the victory of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal elections, have reached a final stage.
On the face of it, the story looks completely fabricated and a kite-flying report for which DC is known for. There is also a talk that it might have been written with a certain political agenda or could even be a planted story by some people.
There are a lot of paradoxes in the story. First, Naidu is no more a friend of Mamata Banerjee, as she had been keeping the TDP chief at bay since he dumped the grand alliance concept in 2019 itself.
She had not met Naidu even once after that and she has not taken kindly his attempt to get closer to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last couple of years.
The DC report says Naidu is making efforts to re-enter the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP even while maintaining old friendship with Mamata, which looks quite absurd.
In fact, the TDP leadership had been angry with Mamata for kicking up a needless controversy saying Naidu had bought spyware from Pegasus to snoop on his political rivals during his regime.
So, the question of “Didi” helping Naidu by lobbying with Prashant Kishor to help him in the next elections in Andhra is totally unbelievable.
Secondly, Naidu has an utter contempt for Prashant Kishor and vice versa; as was evident from the statements both had made in the past. While the TDP chief described him as a Bihari gangster, it was Prashant Kishore who had extensively spread the “Bye Bye Babu” slogan in the past.
Thirdly, Kishor publicly quit the role of a consultant or strategist in 2021 itself and handed over the I-PAC to his colleagues, before he entered the politics by floating Jan Suraj in Bihar.
This was admitted by the DC itself and so, the question of Prashant Kishor donning the role of a consultant, that too for Naidu, doesn’t arise.
Moreover, the I-PAC founded by him is still working for YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and occasionally, Prashant Kishor, too meets Jagan.
The DC report also said the I-PAC still handles the election and communications strategy for Jagan Mohan Reddy.
So, one wonders how he would suddenly shift stand and work for Naidu, which looks completely absurd and hypothetical.
Interestingly, according to the TDP sources, Naidu presently has nearly five consulting firms working on various aspects of the electioneering process.
This includes Sunil Kanugolu’s Mindshare Analytics, Robin Sharma’s Showtime Consultancy, a data consulting company, a data survey company, and a tech company that works on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
While Sunil Kanugolu shifted full-time to the Congress party in Telangana, a small team of his company is still working for Naidu, sources said.
Under these circumstances, the reports of hiring Prashant Kishor by Nadu, setting aside all these firms, seem to be far-fetched.
“With elections to the state assembly just eight months way, one wonders whether Naidu would dare to make such experiments at this stage,” sources added.
