Crisis in Telugu Desam: Goud exit reveals Babu's mismanagement of crisis

June 24, 2008
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, June 23: Former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has mismanaged the political crisis in his party in the last two months.
Chandrababu Naidu, who is currently busy with his 150-day rath yatra to "strengthen" the Telugu Desam, did not devote much time to the political events quickly unfolding in the party back in the State Capital in his absence. The TD supremo was more concerned with the success of his rath yatra and "solving" internal fights in districts, while neglecting the Telangana factor in NTR Bhavan.
He limited himself to just teleconferences to sort out the Telangana tangle in the party. Chandrababu Naidu has been away from the party State headquarters for more than 60 days now and his long absence only added much ammunition to the Telangana factor.
Even after the resignation of senior party colleague T Devendar Goud, he did not call off his rath yatra, but decided to continue with it, simply brushing aside the Goud's episode.
"Chandrababu Naidu should have concentrated more the Telangana issue. Though he formed a three-member panel to take a decision on Telangana, he did not give the committee full independence.
Moreover, he chose to dilute the panel with his incoherent statements. Sometimes he supported united Andhra Pradesh and sometimes he spoke of Telugu Desam being not against the Telangana cause. This only added to the confusion resulting in the
resignation of Goud," a senior TD leader from Telangana said.
The TD State leadership did not take disciplinary action against party leaders who defied the party's stand on Telangana. He gave a long rope to them in a bid to project the TD as a pro-Telangana party. But the unexpected electoral success in the recent by-polls in Telangana gave Chandrababu Naidu enough confidence that people
in the backward region are behind him. And he started neglecting Goud and pitting Goud's juniors against pro-Telangana activists.