Chandrababu Naidu's change of tone: Is TDP drifting back towards BJP?

Naidu was part of the National Democratic Alliance and it seems he is setting the stage to return there

Political antennae have gone up after former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu told reporters in Chittoor he felt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 should be supported and was do-able. “This is possible and very much (sic) achievable. I am sure the Prime Minister will have his goal of taking the country’s GDP to $ 5trillion in the next five years. I am going to come up with a document explaining how this is achievable and can be achieved,” said Naidu after a party meeting. Not so long ago, Naidu was part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and it seems he is setting the stage to return there. In his state, he is being buffeted by hostility and is being hounded by the YSR Congress in power and is intent on extracting revenge from the previous regime. Of course, we don’t know what the local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thinks. It is possible that sometime in the future, Naidu might seek a meeting with Modi to hand over his document to make the PM’s dream come true.

Different instinct

Interesting, the race to be visible on Twitter, and even more, what you do with the media. On the day the Haryana and Maharashtra election results came out, it was Priyanka Gandhi who came out with the first reaction from the Congress, not Rahul Gandhi. On the day of the Ayodhya verdict, it was Priuyanka again. Rahul’s first tweet of the day was not to issue a political comment on the judgment but to thank his SPG (which was withdrawn around the same time). Interesting, the difference in instinct.