ANDHRA Pradesh chief minister Chandrababbu Naidu is in deep trouble. For the first time in his over 35 year long political career, he has been caught in a corrupt act with clinching proof. Audio tapes of Naidu’s telephonic conversation with a nominated MLA Stephenson, which directly link him to the ‘cash-for-vote’ case, surfaced on June 8. RS. 5 CRORE FOR ONE MLA VOTE! Southern states, especially Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, have always been setting benchmarks in terms of money power in electoral arena. Even by those standards, this was a new record. Elections to six vacancies for the post of Members of Legislative Council from the MLA quota were notified in Telangana. TRS with its original strength could win 4 seats comfortably but fielded a fifth candidate to take on the TDP-BJP combine’s candidate. It was banking on the already crossed over MLAs of TDP (5), Congress (4), BSP (2) and YSRCP (2) and support of Majlis party MLAs for getting its fifth candidate elected. The TDP with its remaining 11 MLAs and the five MLAs of BJP was trying to buy its way to victory. In this context its fire-brand MLA Revanth Reddy sought out the nominated MLA from Anglo-Indian category Stephenson for voting in favour of TDP MLC candidate. Getting to know about this development, the TRS top leadership is learnt to have convinced Stephenson to lay a trap for Revanth Reddy. On the evening of May 31st when the TDP MLA with two others walked into Stephenson’s residence with a bag load of Rs 50 lakh cash, spy cameras and Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths lie in wait. And Revanth Reddy spoke extensively with the MLA saying he came with his boss’ knowledge and blessings. He was promised another Rs 4.5 crore after the voting. He was assured that no one would make out whom he voted for and that some lucrative position would be offered to him by the government of Andhra Pradesh. Immediately after the meeting, the ACB police arrested Revanth and two others from Stephenson’s residence. Video tapes of the meeting surfaced in all channels the same night clearly establishing the guilt of TDP and casting aspersions on Chandrababu Naidu who everyone believed was the “boss” referred to by Revanth Reddy. All three were remanded to judicial custody. The TRS as expected won the fifth seat also and the Congress got one seat. The CPI(M) and CPI kept away from voting in this election as they could not support any of the candidates while the YSRCP extended its lone MLA’s support to the TRS. Even as this ‘cash-for-vote’ scandal rocked both the states, Chandrababu kept a low profile, not commenting on the developments while his other colleagues saw this as a conspiracy by TRS to defame TDP. Exactly a week later and just one day before the TDP government was to hold a public meeting in Guntur celebrating one year of its rule, the audio tapes of Chandrababu Naidu’s conversation with Stephenson surfaced in the TV channels. It was clearly the voice of Naidu and he is heard telling Stephenson “I have been briefed by our people about this. I am with you, don’t bother. For everything I am with you. What all they spoke we will honour. Freely you can decide now. That is our commitment and we will work it out.” Clearly, the commitment he was referring to was the Rs 5 crore for the vote. All hell broke loose. TRS government head KCR and his ministers hammered the point that Naidu has been caught red-handed and he will have to go behind bars. Chandrababu Naidu held a late night meeting of his cabinet and his government spokesperson Parakala Prabhakar came out with contradictory statement. While on hand he said that the tapes were not of his leader’s voice, on the other he claimed that what Naidu spoke in different places were stitched together to give this impression. TURNING IT INTO PEOPLE’S ISSUE Caught red-handed, Chandrababu Naidu sought to wriggle out of the crisis by turning this into an issue between the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Addressing the one-year celebration meeting in Guntur Chandrababu went hammer and tongs against KCR and TRS government. He charged it of tapping his and his ministers’ telephones. He posed it as an insult to the people of Andhra Pradesh. He sought to raise the passions by saying that he too has police and ACB and that it will be last day for TRS government if they seek to act against him. KCR also paid back in harsher language, further raising passions. CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh secretary P Madhu condemned the efforts of Chandrababu Naidu to turn what it his own issue into that of people’s issue. CPI(M) Telangana state secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram also criticised this effort even while highlighting that TRS was also involved in this game of buying out MLAs. The TRS has systematically targeted opposition MLAs to lure them into its fold. There are two cabinet ministers in the state who are technically still TDP MLAs. This degeneration in political values was condemned by the Left parties. Chandrababu Naidu hurriedly undertook a trip to Delhi and met the prime minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh on this issue. He sought implementation of Section 8 of AP Reorganisation Act that mandates powers to the Governor in protection of law and order in Hyderabad, which is a common capital for a period not exceeding 10 years, in case of necessity. The Governor for the two states Narasimhan also went to Delhi and briefed the centre on the developments. Chandrababu replaced the Telangana police guarding his residence and camp office with elite Octopus commandos from AP police further heightening tensions. The electronic media had a field day with minute to minute reporting of developments and creating a picture of anxiety among people. TDP ministers announced that their government would set up its own police stations in Hyderabad. Around 87 cases were filed in various places of Andhra Pradesh against Telangana chief minister on charges of tapping the telephones. The AP government has formed a SIT to probe into these cases. The idea is to be ready with notices to KCR in case they are issued to Chandrababu Naidu. Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao met the Governor and is learnt to have reiterated his stance that the ACB must take this issue to logical conclusion by serving notices to Chandrababu Naidu. His voice sample needs to be collected for verification by forensic lab. As of now there are no signs of his backing down. It is reported that the Election Commission has also asked the Anti Corruption Bureau of Telangana to thoroughly probe the ‘note-for-vote’ scam. This may result in futrther speeding of the ongoing investigation. The TRS leaders are pointing out how even prime ministers had to face the courts on such charges and therefore Naidu cannot be an exception. In the meanwhile the Centre is keeping a close watch on the developments. A team of union home ministry was to arrive in Hyderabad to hold discussions with the Governor and other functionaries to take stock of the situation. One reason speculated as to why the Centre was cagey about trying to bail out its ally Chandrababu Naidu is its embroilment in Sushma Swaraj controversy. It cannot afford to be seen blatantly bailing out a CM who is caught red-handed in the scam. Another political reason could be its calculation that if TDP gets weakened in both states, BJP would stand to gain by occupying its space. Whatever the calculations, one fact is clear this controversy has helped both the TRS and TDP governments in pushing to the background people’s issues. Around 900 farmers committed suicide in Telangana and hundreds have died in AP due to searing heat this summer. All the promises made by both the parties before elections are nowhere near to be fulfilled. In fact both governments are pursuing paths that are directly opposite to the fulfilment of those promises. It is only the Left parties in both the states that are trying to put the focus on people’s issues.