A part of Payakaraopeta, a town very close to the port city of Visakhapatnam, has turned yellow. Over the weekend, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supporters and workers gathered at a main junction in Payakaraopeta and endured humid weather for hours.
They were waiting for the road show of TDP supreme leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to begin. Perched atop a customised bus, Naidu addressed the crowd as part of his election campaign. Naidu started his speech listing out his government’s welfare schemes and the hard work he put in as chief minister.
As he entered the next segment, his voice became shriller, and body language aggressive. “Did KCR insult us or not?” he asked the crowd. “Are we dogs? Are we demons? Are we plunderers? Are we traitors of Telangana? Are you ashamed or not, brothers? You are angry, right?,” Naidu exclaimed. He went on to say, “Whoever breathes the air, eats food and drinks water of this land should have Andhra pride and not become slave of Telangana rulers.”
R Venkat Rao, who was sitting 90km away in the central part of Visakhapatnam, is not at all pleased with these remarks of Naidu.
Venkat Rao is the president of Tandra Paparayudu Cultural Association. “This rhetoric of Chandrababu is getting irritating now,” Venkat Rao said. Venkat Rao belongs to the same community as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and is his admirer. When Chandrashekar Rao was on a spiritual sojourn to Visakhapatnam after he won the Telangana elections, Venkat Rao wanted to meet him.
“In this region, you have to seek votes based on your work and not by provoking people against Modi and KCR. There are people in Andhra who like KCR and demonising him will not help. He has won in Telangana because he proved to be a good administrator. By criticising KCR, I think he will lose votes,” Venkat Rao argued.
As the Andhra Pradesh election campaign hits fever pitch, self-respect of Andhraites seems to be on the top of the agenda for leaders. Once called the CEO of Andhra Pradesh for his sophisticated approach, Naidu, in this election campaign, has embarked on a different route to garner support.
Clubbing opposition leader and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrashekar Rao after their recent bonhomie, Naidu seems to replicating what happened during the assembly elections in Telangana when attempts were made to raise pro-Telangana sentiments.
In the last few days, Naidu has been passionately talking about how Andhraites were “insulted” and “kicked” out of Telangana. He is also creating a scare that if Jagan Mohan gets a majority of the seats, Chandrashekar Rao will rule Andhra Pradesh indirectly. Hence, say “no to Jagan” seems to be his latest mantra.
“KCR benefited by abusing people from Andhra and now Chandrababu wants to benefit the same way,” said two-time Congress MP from Rajahmundry, Undavalli Arun Kumar. “In Telangana, the charge was that Andhra migrants and rulers exploited Telangana because of which there was a demand for a separate state. But, people in Andhra Pradesh always wanted a united state. People of Andhra Pradesh do not have any grouse against Telangana. In these elections, it won't be vote against Telangana as KCR or his party is not contesting in AP,” Kumar said.
Commenting on Naidu’s attempts to bring entire the Andhra Pradesh population under the one ‘Andhra’ identity, he said that each region is unique in its own way. “Rayalaseema region has a different culture. North coastal Andhra Pradesh is backward and east and west Godavari districts are fertile,” he argued.
Naidu is not the only Andhra politician mouthing the same Andhraite pride lines. Actor and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan warned Chandrashekar Rao not to meddle in the affairs of Andhra Pradesh. “Andhra people in Telangana are being beaten,” he said before filing his nomination in Bhimavaram. The actor drew flak from various quarters for his statements, with many Andhraite settlers in Hyderabad calling it “untrue.”
Though Chandrashekar Rao is repeatedly being targeted by some leaders in Andhra Pradesh during the election campaign, the Telangana chief minister has been exercising restraint.
“At this point, we do not want to react much. Whatever we say, Naidu and Pawan Kalyan will use it to their advantage and provoke voters. Though there is no anti-Telangana feeling, TDP leaders are desperate to make people insecure. Once elections get over, we will talk,“ said a senior leader of TRS, who did not want to be named.