The near-certainty of the continued absence of TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu from public life owing to his judicial custody in various corruption cases appears to have firmed up his family’s resolve to close ranks on the leadership issue.
His wife, Nara Bhuvaneshwari, and daughter-in-law and son Nara Lokesh’s wife, Brahmani, may try to fill the void, anticipating that Chandrababu, and possibly Lokesh, too, might be caught up in a vortex of corruption cases.Lokesh is also likely to get arrested.
The fate of Naidu’s quash petition in the skill development scam in the Supreme Court will be known on 3 October.At the 27 September hearing, one of the justices recused himself from the case, and upon a request for urgent listing by the former Andhra chief minister’s lawyer, the apex court agreed to list the matter on 3 October.
Political campaigns being finalised
Irrespective of the status of both men, the two women may assume leadership command of TDP campaigns in the coming days.
The family may have already charted at least two political campaigns the women would lead.
A political affairs committee of the party on Saturday, 30 September, announced that Bhuvaneshwari will come forward on Gandhi Jayanthi on 2 October by sitting on a day-long Nirahara Deeksha.
In case Naidu is not out of jail shortly, Bhuvaneshwari might undertake a yatra from Nimmakuru, the birthplace of party patriarch NT Rama Rao, in Gudivada taluk of Krishna district, to Naravaripalle in Tirupati district where the TDP chief was born.
Similarly, Brahmani might be getting ready to lead the Yuva Galam (Voice of Youth) padayatra in place of her husband if Lokesh faces arrest in any case.
Lokesh had suspended the padayatra in Razole in Konaseema district at the time of his father’s arrest on 9 September.The campaign was to start again on 29 September but was deferred again.
Incidentally, as public campaigns go, the Varahi yatra of TDP “ally” Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan is set to resume from Krishna district from 1 October.
The decision of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo of Bhuvaneshwari and Brahmani to take the political battle to the people on behalf of the father-son pair of Naidu and Lokesh assumes significance in this unfolding political context.
The underlying assumption seems to be that even if Naidu gets bail in the alleged ₹370 crore Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation scam or the Inner Ring Road or Fibrenet cases, he may possibly face an array of fresh cases to keep him preoccupied with the criminal justice system.
If Lokesh shares his father’s fate, the TDP faces a leadership vacuum that, if not quickly filled, may cause the party to lose steam and direction.
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