It is a known fact that the Telugu Desam Party, headed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, had taken an aggressive stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular ahead of the 2019 general elections in the state.
Though the TDP was part of the National Democratic Alliance until 2018, it pulled out of the alliance over the issue of special category status for Andhra Pradesh, an issue that was aggressively taken up by YSR Congress Party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at the time.
Naidu apparently felt that Jagan’s campaign for special category status could become a major election issue against him in the 2019 polls.
He therefore decided to sever ties with the BJP and began attacking Modi in a serious tone, at times even dragging the latter’s family into political criticism.
In posts on his social media platform X, Naidu made several critical remarks against Modi.
In one such tweet on April 16, 2019, he said: “Modi has systematically destroyed prestigious institutions of India. In BJP govt’s rule, institutional autonomy and democracy have been under attack.”
He went on to add: “From CBI to RBI, even a constitutional authority like the Election Commission was not spared.” The contents of the post were independently reported and archived by media outlets.
In another post in May 2019, Naidu said the Election Commission had failed in its primary duty of conducting free and fair elections in Andhra Pradesh and called on the poll panel to restore the confidence of voters.
He also questioned the ECI’s handling of complaints concerning EVMs and VVPAT verification.
Now, Naidu is one of the BJP-led government’s key allies at the Centre and has been going out of his way to praise Modi at every available platform.
He is also defending the Election Commission of India and attacking opposition parties for raising concerns over the poll body and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The YSR Congress Party, which has now joined hands with the Congress and Left parties in criticising the Election Commission of India and Gyanesh Kumar, has dug out Naidu’s old posts on X to launch a counter-attack against him.
YSRCP supporters are extensively circulating Naidu’s old posts attacking Modi and the Election Commission of India on social media, apparently to embarrass him and highlight what they describe as a complete U-turn over the last seven years.
YSRCP leaders have questioned how Naidu changed his stand and is now welcoming the Election Commission’s clarification, stating that it reaffirmed the “integrity and credibility” of constitutional institutions and put to rest misconceptions surrounding the issue.
As YSRCP supporters began circulating Naidu’s old posts criticising Modi and the Election Commission, the posts were reportedly deleted from Naidu’s X account. However, screenshots have continued to circulate on social media.
YSRCP leaders and supporters are now using Naidu’s change in position over the last seven years to portray him as an inconsistent politician who, they allege, changes his stand according to political circumstances.
