Talk of Oppn alliance in air as BJP slams YSRCP

Visakhapatnam With BJP top leadership sounding the poll bugle in Andhra Pradesh, the talk of stitching an alliance among TDP, Jana Sena Party and BJP to put up a united Opposition to defeat the ruling YSRCP has gathered steam.

Though buzz on a possible alliance is doing the rounds in various quarters, as of now both YSRCP and the BJP are having a ‘blow hot blow cold relationship.’ The situation has changed remarkably with multiple meetings among TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu and JSP president and actor Pawan Kalyan after the latter was declined permission by the police to hold roadshows in Visakhapatnam on October 15 last year.

TDP, which exited the NDA coalition in 2018 over denial of Special Category Status (SCS) after publicly lauding the ‘special package’ as beneficial to the State, has been praising, off late the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. YSRCP, which has brute majority in the Assembly as well as a good presence in the Parliament has been supporting all the key decisions taken by the BJP-led coalition at the Centre.

Another interesting development was the meeting between Chandrababu Naidu and Union Home Minister and BJP strongman Amit Shah in Delhi on June 3-the first between them after the TDP walked out of the NDA alliance after spitting venom against the Central Government.

During the celebration of completion of nine years by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president J P Nadda hit out at the YSRCP at the Srikalahasti (Tirupati) meeting on Saturday terming the State Government led by Jagan Mohan Reddy as highly corrupt and anti-people. He said the State is suffering as it has no capital and there is no safety to the denizens due to lawlessness.

At another meeting in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, Amit Shah also slammed the YSRCP Government for indulging in corrupt practices and not doing anything concrete for the State.

The BJP national leaders highlighted their progress achieved in Andhra Pradesh due to love and affection of the Prime Minister for its people and described how the Centre had sanctioned several premier projects for AP, disbursed revenue deficit of Rs 10,000 crore as promised in the AP Bifurcation Act, 2014 and Rs 13,000 crore for Polavaram after granting it national project status.

Interestingly, though Pawan Kalyan’s party is an alliance partner of NDA, he has not been invited to the nine year in power celebrations by the BJP. However, BJP leaders say their alliance is ‘intact.’

The BJP leaders have been maintaining stoic silence over what transpired at the recent meeting between Chandrababu Naidu and Amit Shah though there is speculation that their strategy to unseat YSRCP in 2024 had figured at the meeting. Pawan Kalyan on several occasions has been hinting at a joint fight to form the next government in the State taking advantage of, what he termed, ‘severe anti-incumbency’ factor.

Meanwhile, BJP national spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP G V L Narasimha Rao, who is expected to be fielded for Lok Sabha election from Visakhapatnam, said they are making a serious bid to gain a strong foothold in AP as part of strategy to continue in power at the Centre for third consecutive term under the leadership of Narendra Modi.

He said there is no change in their stand on continuing Amaravati as the capital after a collective decision was taken during the erstwhile TDP Government and bhoomi puja was performed for a futuristic capital by the Prime Minister. He said the Centre had made a significant contribution by sanctioning several projects for development of AP post-bifurcation and ‘karyakartas’ of the party are firm in making an impact in the next elections by undertaking several mass contact programmes.