Telugu Desam supremo Chandrababu Naidu had tapped on the back of Congress president Rahul Gandhi the other day in Bengaluru. He shook his hands with Rahul Gandhi first and then pulled him to the front row as all the leaders waved at the crowd. Then as Rahul was leaving the place, Chandrababu Naidu once again shook his hand and gave a pat on the back of the Congress chief.
The TDP chief was not subconscious or unconscious when he did this to Rahul Gandhi. It was neither accidental. Even the sharing of dais was very clear for him and he knew he would have to face the Congress chief. Telangana Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao too knew this and had advanced his visit to Bengaluru by one day to avoid meeting Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi. But, Chandrababu Naidu preferred this meeting and acted as he desired.
Interestingly, when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi reached the venue and were walking towards the dais, Chandrababu Naidu was behind them, though reached Bengaluru several hours before them. It is said that Chandrababu Naidu must have greeted both Rahul and Sonia behind the stage before coming under the focus of the still and video cameras. That is what Chandrababu Naidu is known for. But what he did with the Congress leaders right in front of the cameras is only visible while what had happened behind is for the people to guess.
Even before the dais was cleared by the leaders one after the other, the videos and photographs of the venue starting moving fast in the social media. In Andhra Pradesh, the photographs of Chandrababu Naidu shaking hands with Rahul and patting his back went viral. There is discussion across the State on the possibilities of Chandrababu Naidu going with the Congress in the next elections. While some welcomed this move, there are several others who are against the Congress-TDP alliance in the State.
The hard core loyalists of the two parties have been fighting for the past three decades and they don’t approve of this alliance. It is certainly not a positive development for these loyalists and some of the leaders from both the parties. But, there are some who want and claim that there are no permanent enemies in politics. The TDP leaders are already making positive moves towards building a positive talk in favour of the Congress-TDP alliance for the next elections as the target of the two parties is to defeat BJP and the common enemy for the two parties is Narendra Modi.
“When the target is same for two people and the enemy is strong, there is nothing wrong in the two people joining hands to defeat the strong enemy,” is the new statement that the TDP leaders have started floating in the State after the Bengaluru development.
With the leaders of the two parties differing on the alliance, it is to be seen if Chandrababu Naidu’s tap on Rahul Gandhi’s shoulders would be a pat on TDP’s back or a slap on its face.
