The joining of veteran Congress leader and former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Nadendla Bhaskar Rao into the Bharatiya Janata Party came as a surprise to many people, but analysts say there is a strategy behind it.
Nadendla has been away from active politics for over three decades now. In fact, nobody in the present generation politics acknowledges him as a leader.
Only seniors remember him as a person who served as the chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh for a period of one month, when he dethroned legendary actor and Telugu Desam Party founder-president N T Rama Rao.
He floated Prajaswamya Telugu Desam Party after he came out of the TDP, but it lost deposits in all the places. Later, he rejoined the Congress but has not been playing any role in the party.
Now, the question is what would Nadendla gain by joining the BJP at this stage? And what would the BJP gain by admitting a leader who is a spent force and has been away from politics for several years.
Sources say the BJP is trying to lay trap for Nadendla’s son Nadendla Manohar, former speaker of the assembly and still a popular leader in Andhra.
Manohar, who quit the Congress a few months before the assembly elections in AP and joined Jana Sena, has gone silent after the debacle in the elections.
Apparently, the BJP wants to lure Manohar by first attracting his father. If Nadenda family joins the BJP, it will give considerable strength in Guntur district, the party leaders hope.
Let us see what Manohar will do now.
