HYDERABAD: A month after the shock defeat in Karnataka, the BJP has started focusing on Telugu states with top guns of the party making a series of visits in preparation for the coming elections. A day after BJP president J.P. Nadda`s visit to Tirupati on Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. The visit by two top BJP leaders in as many days is likely to set off a flurry of political activity for realignment in the run-up to next year`s elections.
Political analysts say the visit by the BJP leaders may be a beginning of the saffron party`s efforts to test waters before getting into serious talks for alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the main opposition party in the state. After the humiliating defeat in 2019 elections, which they fought separately, TDP, BJP and Jana Sena Party (JSP) headed by actor politician Pawan Kalyan are keen to join hands to take on YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
The visits by Nadda and Amit Shah are seen as part of BJP`s efforts to reach out to masses and gain a foothold in the state. This is their first visit to Andhra Pradesh after the recent meeting with TDP president and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu had met Amit Shah and Nadda on June 3 in Delhi. They reportedly discussed TDP-JSP-BJP alliance for elections in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
This was Naidu`s first meeting with Shah after TDP pulled out of the BJP-led NDA in 2018 over the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh. Political observers believe both the parties are keen to leave behind the bitterness of 2019 elections and work together. BJP and TDP had an alliance in 2014 elections and though Pawan Kalyan did not contest the polls, he campaigned for the alliance and addressed public meetings along with Narendra Modi and Chandrababu Naidu.
The JSP had snapped ties with both TDP and BJP for going back on the promise to accord special category status to Andhra Pradesh. Interestingly, TDP later used the same issue to pull out of the BJP-led NDA. BJP, which was sharing power with TDP in the state, also had to pull out of the coalition. In 2014 polls, BJP had bagged four seats in the 175-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly. It has also won two out of 25 Lok Sabha seats.
However, in 2019 polls, which saw TDP losing power to YSR Congress, BJP drew a blank while JSP could manage to win just one Assembly. After the 2019 debacle, JSP was quick to mend fences with the BJP. Though Chandrababu Naidu too wanted to bury the hatchet, the BJP leadership was cold in its response as YSRCP was extending support to BJP on key Bills in the Parliament.
With less than a year to go for elections, Pawan Kalyan started exerting pressure on BJP to finalise the alliance to avoid a split of anti-YSRCP votes. Nadda`s speech at Tirupati public meeting on Saturday indicates that BJP is gearing up to take on YSRCP. He slammed the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government on widespread corruption and lawlessness in the state. "I am sorry to say YSRCP is one of the most corrupt governments I have ever seen. There is no end to scams. There is mining scam, sand scam, liquor scam, land scam and education scam. Which type of scam is not taking place?"
Nadda also lashed out at YSRCP for turning the state economy into an 'alcohol economy'. The BJP president also alleged that lawlessness is at extreme. "There is no law and no law enforcing agency," he remarked. The BJP chief also attacked the Jagan government over not building the state capital at Amaravati for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone in 2015.
