Ofcourse 2-Jun-2014 was bifurcation date and that changed history of telugu people. However another date changed history ,albeit silently. It was 1st-June-2015 the day of vote for note case on Revant Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu. It is 3 years since that incident.
Vote for Note (V4N) case : On June 1 in 2015, there was election for 6 vacant MLC seats in Telangana. There were 7 candidates contesting : 5 from TRS, 1 Congress and 1 TDP. Each candidate needed at least 17 votes. TRS had won 63 seats in Telangana’s first election. TDP leaders had hoped the TRS would field only 4 candidates, giving the TDP nominee a chance. But the TRS fielded a fifth candidate. In order to win that one MLC seat, TDP attempted to woo Stephenson through Reventh Reddy . But TDP’s MLA revanth reddy caught red-handed by the ACB of Telangana and video clip showing Reventh Reddy offering money to Stephenson was telecast in media. After couple of days another clip was shown in news channels,where Chandrababu Naidu was talking to stephenson. The clip is now famous as “Manavallu briefed me” audio clip landed Chandrababu Naidu into the soup. Cases have been registered and investigation has been going on. Even though TDP party defends itself saying video clips and audio clips are fabricated and TDP leaders phones have been legally tapped, those arguments do not really hold water as ACB would not be so foolish to file cases based on fabricated video and audio clips. Moreover it is difficult to prove phone call tapping. So this case will haunt Chandrababu Naidu for several years to come.
This Vote for Note (V4N) case has so many consequences on Chandrababu Naidu, TDP and Andhra Pradesh. In fact it completely changed the political landscape of Telugu States.
Political Consequences:
1) The first consequence of this is, wash Out of TDP from Telangana state. The major conflict between TRS and TDP, post bifurcation was ,KCR wanted to make sure TDP doesn’t exist in Telangana. Because TDP party has been very strong in Telangana since it formation. BCs from this reason have been forte for TDP in last 3 decades. But after getting caught red handedly with audio and video proofs, it became clear to Chandrababu Naidu how risky it is staying in Hyderabad and he had to move to Vijayawada hurriedly. Chandrababu leaving Hyderabad as father expedited TDP washout in Telangana. As CBN left Hyd, TDP leaders lost hope and looked for other opportunities. Most of them joined TRS and kingpin of this V4N case, Revant reddy joined Congress..
2) The second political consequences of this issue is, now there is “No party for BCs in Telangana”. This will have huge impact on political dynamics of Telangana State. Congress has now become Reddy party yet again as most of the Reddy leaders are consolidating into Congress. On the other hand by welcoming Velkams ( velama + Kamma)TRS also has confined to a few castes. BCs, stronghold of Telangana state are deserted. Now, as Telangana sentiment is still on, that – ours is new state, we have been robbed by AP leaders in the past, we need to reconstruct Telangana and all that stuff , caste equations are not working in their full form and BCs also not bothering on this at this moment. But after 1-2 elections they will understand this and caste equations will again come into play.
3) Even in AP Chandrababu Naidu lost a lot because of this vote for Note case. In fact this is first downfall of CBN in his political career. In 2014, in both Telangana and AP States, there were high sentiments and people of Andhra Pradesh voted for CBN with very high aspirations. They got irritated when TDP focused on one single MLC seat in Telangana where it had no stakes at the time when Andhra Pradesh needed full focus of an experienced Chief Minister because of the problems it was facing. In other words, this incident was the first breaking point for TDP after 2014.
4) People observed, first time in his life CBN is fearing central government. Maybe he is also convinced what Central Government can do if it wants after he has seen Jagan (UPA) and Sasikala (NDA) incidents. This over-cautiousness made him take improper decisions regarding Special category status. Moreover,after this incident, there was a big paradigm shift in the minds of people who used to think Chandrababu Naidu will twist the fingers of Central Government and get what state wants .
Administrative consequences:
Chandrababu Naidu had to vacate Hyderabad where police and officials are in control of TRS and move to Vijayawada. This has in one way helped Andhra Pradesh. The construction of New Capital city Amaravathi has been going on snail pace and only temporary buildings and temporary assembly have been built so far. Credit for these temporary buildings must go to vote for Note case. because if that had not happened Chandrababu would have been still ruling the AP state from Hyderabad.
Damage to the image of Chandrababu Naidu :
Let us be frank here. Is there any political party in India that never does similar to what happened in vote for Note case. Almost every party does it. Until caught, everyone is a holy and noble man. But getting caught , that too with audio and video clip proofs is definitely damaging the image of the political leader.
Getting caught on tape, not only damage Chandrababu Naidu’s image, it also made Chandrababu weak in attacking his political opponents on the charges of corruption. After this incident, whenever Chandrababu speaks on honesty and his clean political life, he is immediately trolled in the social media for his vote for note case. of course his political opponents who are facing corruption charges are happy with this incident as they too can counter attack Chandrababu if he attacks them on the charges of corruption
Conclusion:
Let us keep politics aside, but what is the impact of this incident on the minds of people is this – People ( once again) lost hope on Indian judiciary system because they always think, in India laws and rules are only for normal people but powerful people always have a way out from all these cases. the progress in this incident has on the reinforced that opinion. And another opinion of people that got a reinforced with this incident is – all politicians of India are same, some will get caught and some will not.
-ZURAN
