By his regular flip-flops on Telangana statehood issue, the Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has become a laughing stock in the eyes of the people.
After giving consent letters to the Centre twice favouring formation of Telangana, incorporating the Telangana promise in his party's 2009 election manifesto and his politburo taking the pro-statehood decision way back in 2008, Naidu is now sitting on fast in Delhi against the division of the state. This has left many people, including the national media, bewildered.
Now, the question being asked in political circles is which way Naidu would vote when the resolution or draft bill on Telangana state comes up before the state Assembly.
Will he vote in its favour because of his party's official stand supporting creation of separate state or will he vote against it because of his changed thinking in view of the Seemandhra agitation? or will he simply boycott the Assembly on some pretext or other?
Given the TDP chief's track record, it is possible that he will find way to continue his ambiguity and stay away from the Assembly proceedings when it becomes clear that such a resolution or draft bill will be put to voting.
He will also make sure that nobody understands clearly what exactly is his thinking on the bifurcation issue.
It has become a nightmarish experience for the media, particularly the national media, to cover his programmes because he leaves them utterly confused as to where he stands on the Telangana issue.
Recently, the chief editor of popular English channel CNN-IBN, Rajdeep Sardesai, became frustrated, trying to extract clear answer from Naidu for a simple question whether he supported state's division or not.
For full 20 minutes, the TDP chief was grilled on this question but no clear answer was forthcoming from him. Sardesai was so disgusted by Naidu's evasive answers that he later tweeted about his experience.
Those who have been observing Naidu from the beginning of his political career say that he has completely misread the situation as far as Telangana issue is concerned and committed blunder after blunder.
There is no way out for Naidu now. By bowing to the pressure from his Telangana leaders and giving his nod to the formation of separate state, Naidu committed a big mistake of his career.
This is because he himself was never convinced about the division of the state. Taking a political stand that is quite inconsistent with his own personal viewpoint does not speak well about any leader. It is exactly what Naidu has done. For the sake of political expedience, he took a pro-Telangana stand though he himself was never in favour of dividing the state.
At every stage of the developments concerning Telangana issue, Naidu acted in tandem with the Congress central leadership and appeared to toe its line with a common aim of neutralizing YSR Congress Party President Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
A day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) announced its decision to bifurcate the state, Naidu came before the media and spoke as if he was the PRO of the Congress high command and highlighted how a new capital for Seemandhra could be built with all modern facilities and infrastructure. He even went on to demand Rs five lakh crore for construction of the new capital.
Nowhere did he talk about the hurt feelings of the Seemandhra people and he failed to anticipate the extent of anger sweeping the Seemandhra region.
Naidu tried to hard to rein in his party's Seemandhra leaders and prevailed upon them not to resign from their posts. His flip-flops are now catching up with him.
