40 years later, regional powerhouse TDP faces uncertain future
HYDERABAD: Four decades ago, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) entered the political arena, capturing public imagination almost instantly. Floated as a regional party built on regional pride by matinee idol Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), with a promise to “uphold the self-respect of Telugu people”, the TDP soon grew into a major political force in the country playing a crucial role in national politics for nearly two decades.
Forty years later, the TDP, now headed by Nara Chandrababu Naidu, is battling for survival on its own soil, its demise exacerbated by the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. It has been reduced to a virtual non-entity in Telangana, while it is facing a do-or-die situation in Andhra Pradesh three years after it lost power to a new regional party, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) headed by young CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The party, which enjoyed power for 21 years, 16 years in unified Andhra Pradesh and five years post-bifurcation, now has myriad problems. There is the lack of a strong second rung to succeed Naidu, who will turn 72 soon. There has been an effort to make his son, Nara Lokesh, the party’s next-gen leader but that move has thus far failed to capture public imagination, leading to the inevitable question: “After Naidu, who?”
When NTR shook the nation
Till early 1982, NTR was the undisputed superstar of his generation in the Telugu film industry (a status he enjoyed for over three decades), and made an indelible impact as a “living god” by virtue of roles such as Lord Rama, Krishna, Shiva, and Venkateshwara.
But on March 29 that year, NTR pivoted to politics, announcing the launch of the Telugu Desam Party in his typical dramatic style on the lawns of the new MLA quarters in Hyderabad. “It was a gathering of a few hundred people, at the new MLA quarters, who came to see the legendary actor in flesh and blood, rather than having any interest in his political plans. He spoke about the self-respect of Telugu people, his threedecade-long film career and his decision to give back to society by entering politics,” recalled senior journalist Bandaru Srinivasa Rao of All India Radio, who was present at the gathering. “Suddenly, somebody from the crowd asked him what the name of the new political party was. He took out a small piece of paper from the pocket of his white kurta and announced the name: Telugu Desam Party,” Rao said.
The main political plank of the TDP was “self-respect of Telugu people”, and the sense of disrespect NTR believed the Congress, the then national hegemon, was displaying in its treatment of regional leaders. “NTR felt that the national party was treating its chief ministers as doormats… He wanted to awaken them and arouse them,” said journalist-author Ramesh Kandula in his book, “Maverick Messiah”, a biography of NTR.
When NTR launched the TDP, not many people in the Congress, which had been ruling Andhra Pradesh since 1956, took it seriously. “They were of the view that it was just the overenthusiasm of a film star and it was not easy to run a political party,” said senior journalist and political analyst Dasu Kesava Rao, who has followed TDP politics for over three decades.
But the TDP surprised everyone, grew into a strong political force as NTR toured the length and breadth of the state, on an intermittent six month tour between June 1982 and January 1983, in his “Chaitanya Ratham”, a remodelled Chevrolet van, driven by his son N Harikrishna. He drew tens of thousands to his roadside meetings and most were charmed by his oratory and cinematic appeal. The TDP swept to power in the January 1983 elections with a massive mandate — winning 201 seats in the 294member assembly. And NTR took over as the first non-congress chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on January 9, 1983.
A roller-coaster ride
But turbulence came quickly. The first crisis came within 18 months — in August 1984, when NTR went to the US for a heart surgery, his own colleague Nadendla Bhaskar Rao effected a coup with the support of the Congress. On his return, NTR, despite being of fragile health, travelled across the state in his Chaitanya Ratham again. His son-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu was by his side, and managed to keep the flock together and took the battle to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
National and regional parties such as the Left, BJP, Janata Party and the DMK rallied behind NTR, and TDP MLAS were paraded before President Gyani Zail Singh. Under pressure, then PM Indira Gandhi recalled Governor Ramlal, appointing Shankar Dayal Sharma. NTR was reinstated after being out of power for 31 days.
Such was the sway of the TDP on the electorate that it won 30 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from AP in the 1984 general elections held after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, when the Congress swept the rest of India. In its first appearance in a Lok Sabha election, the TDP became the main opposition.
In 1985, still upset about the revolt against him, NTR dissolved the assembly and went for fresh elections. The TDP returned to power by winning 202 out of 250 seats it contested. During this period, NTR made some radical changes, such as doing away with the patwari system, and reducing the age of retirement of state government employees from 58 to 55. But these proved controversial, and coupled with the incidents of violence that rocked the state following the murder of an influential Kapu leader Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga in Vijayawada, contributed to the TDP’S loss in the 1989 assembly elections.
Despite this, between 1989 and 1994, the TDP still played a key role at the Centre. NTR was integral to the formation, in 1989, of the National Front government (led by VP Singh) as convener of a coalition of several non-congress parties including the DMK and the Asom Gana Parishad.
In 1993, NTR married Lakshmi Parvathi, his second wife, after his first, N Basavarama Tarakam, died of cancer in 1985. Her entry into NTR’S life led to a rift between him and his family, who were apprehensive that she might take over the party. The rift widened after NTR returned to power for a third term in 1994. Naidu, who was married to Bhuvaneshwari, NTR’S second daughter from his first marriage, was wary of Lakshmi Parvathi and engineered a coup against NTR in August 1995. He gained the support of 191 of the 219 TDP MLAS and became CM on September 1, 1995. Within four months, NTR passed away on January 18, 1996 of a heart attack.
The TDP continued to play a major role in national politics with Naidu heading the 13-party United Front (1996) and being instrumental in forming two noncongress governments at the Centre — first headed by HD Deve Gowda and later by IK Gujral. He also supported the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from outside.
The beginning of the slide
But the TDP’S star started waning in the 2000s. The emergence of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao, spearheading the movement for separate Telangana state, was one. Naidu sought to play down the Telangana movement, but as it gained strength, wrote to the committee that was studying the issue, promising TDP’S support for the bifurcation. When the UPA announced the formation of the state in 2013 (it came into being in 2014), however, Naidu backtracked and said the decision was taken in a hurry.
Another was perceived apathy to rural issues. Once viewed as a party of the poor because of its welfare schemes, Naidu pivoted to being seen as a technocrat. But what this also meant was that the TDP lost its connection with the state’s rural poor, its traditional support base. His rivals projected him as a slave of World Bank, as the economic reforms led to a sharp rise in power tariffs, closure of public sector undertakings and the perceived neglect of the agriculture sector. The Congress, led by YS Rajasekhar Reddy, regained its strength and defeated the TDP in 2004 elections and again in 2009.
After YSR’S death, the emergence of the YSR Congress party floated by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2011 posed a big challenge to the party, but the TDP came to power in post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh thanks to alliances with the BJP and the Jana Sena Party floated by actor Pawan Kalyan. Even then, the TDP failed to find long-term resurgence. The state’s financial resources were at a premium at the time, and Naidu’s plan to build a world-class capital at Amaravati failed to take off, while the Polavaram dam project remained incomplete.
Finally, the return of a dominant national party, the BJP, meant that regional parties were no longer as powerful as they were between 1989 and 2014. For some time, the TDP was part of the second NDA government headed by Narendra Modi but the partnership did not last. In 2018, the TDP exited the NDA.
Meanwhile, Jagan Reddy captured the public imagination with a 3,000km-long yatra from November 2017 to January 2019 which catapulted him to power in 2019. The TDP ended up with just 23 of 175 seats in the assembly. “It is true that Naidu could not complete any of the projects he took up, but more than that, he could not catch up with the new, youthful politics of Jagan Reddy, aided by Prashant Kishor,” said Ramesh Kandula.
TDP at a crossroads
With another two years left for the next assembly elections in AP, the TDP faces a challenge. The party retained a 39.9% vote share in the 2019 elections. Naidu has led agitations against the Reddy government, and in November declared that he would return to the assembly only in the capacity of the CM. “But the biggest drawback is that Naidu has failed to develop a second-rung leadership. His son Lokesh has not proved that he can be a successor to Naidu, as his own party leaders do not have faith in him,” said Ramesh Kandula. “So, even if the TDP comes to power again in 2024, this leadership crisis will continue to haunt the party,” he added. Lokesh, who studied at Stanford, lost the 2019 assembly elections from Mangalagiri.
The TDP has lost all elections post 2019 — gram panchayats, zila and block parishads, municipalities and municipal corporations. Even in Naidu’s own bastion Kuppam in Chittoor district, the TDP fared poorly, winning only 14 of 89 gram panchayats, three of 65 block parishad seats, and six of 25 municipality seats in elections held last year. “Nobody can separate the TDP from the hearts of the Telugu people. There might be several ups and downs in the TDP journey. The party has created history many times in the last 40 years. Once again, the party cadres will re-dedicate themselves to the pride of Telugu people and we shall bounce back to power,” Naidu said on March 29.
Kesava Rao said: “It is not so easy for Naidu alone to take on the money and muscle power of Jagan in the next elections. Naidu will be 74 and Jagan is still in his 50s.” The TDP is now looking to 2024. Naidu has said he will focus on nurturing a young leader. Political analyst Sriram Karri said: “It is very tempting to write him off as a leader, but he still has a chance. 2024 will be the test.”