Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had described former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu as “U-turn Babu” during their election campaign in March as he had left NDA to support Congress.

Now Naidu has taken another ‘U’ turn, this time to sail with BJP on crucial issues including instant triple talaq Bill and withdrawal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Naidu, who worked with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a bid to defeat the BJP, did not meet him even once after the poll results. TDP’s recent actions in Parliament and Naidu’s virtual silence over his four MPs shifting loyalties to BJP shows that he is inching closer to the NDA at the Centre, TDP sources said.

Naidu’s support for withdrawal of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and scrapping of Article 35A smacks of his alleged “Uturn politics”. While he wants special status to and jobs for Kashmiris in J&K to go, Naidu wants the same to be implemented in AP. In fact, it was the demand for special privileges for AP that dominated the campaign in recent elections to the state assembly.

The TDP leader has often accused the Centre of bifurcating AP “unilaterally” without the consent of the local people but supported the Centre’s decision to withdraw special status to J&K and bifurcate the state without the latter taking the people there in confidence.

AP too enjoys certain special privileges governed by Article 371 (D). Following two violent agitations – separate Telangana in 1961and separate Andhra in 1971, the Centre amended Constitutions to insert Section D to Article 371 to protect the rights of locals in terms of education and jobs. The undivided state was declared as six zones with jobs reserved for people living in the zone concerned. Post bifurcation of AP, four of the zones went to AP and two to Telangana.

Even for purpose of admission to institutions of higher learning and professional colleges, AP is divided into two regions – Andhra University and Sri Venkateswara University. Students from one university region are considered non-local in the other region and they will have to compete with students from other parts of the country for the 15 per cent quota for non-locals. Moreover, AP has a special legislation, AP Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1970, popularly called as Act 1 of 70, that prohibits purchase of land from tribals by non-tribals in tribal areas. Though there were attempts to amend the legislation, the Centre intervened and invoked the Fifth Schedule of Constitution to thwart the efforts of the then NTR government.

Naidu had aligned with Farooq Abdullah of National Conference to form a non-BJP front. Abdullah campaigned for TDP in Rayalaseema districts. Abdullah has been a TDP ally from its inception in 1982. TDP founder NT Rama Rao took National Conference in the National Front in the late 1980s. Rama Rao had maintained silence on Article 370 so as not to hurt Abdullah on one hand and keep BJP to support the Front from outside. Naidu has sought Abdullah’s support for grant of special category status to AP.

