Andhra Pradesh BJP optimistic of allying with JS-TD for state assembly polls

Vijayawada: The AP unit of Bharatiya Janata Party is highly hopeful of resolving the stalemate over its alliance with Jana Sena and Telugu Desam in the upcoming Assembly and Parliamentary polls in Andhra Pradesh.

Leadership of state BJP is planning to hold a state-level executive committee meeting in Vijayawada within a fortnight. This will be the first meeting of the state executive after BJP’s national leadership announced Daggubati Purandeswari as president of the AP unit.

Purandeswari is planning to invite BJP national president J.P. Nadda and All India organising secretary B.L Santosh to the state-level meeting and seek their intervention on the issue of BJP’s alliance with JS and TD.

Ever since Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan announced his party’s alliance with Telugu Desam Party soon after meeting TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in Rajahmundry Central Prison, there has been widespread confusion within the BJP cadre on how the tripartite alliance would work out without any official announcement from the BJP top brass.

Incidentally, Purandeswari and other senior AP leaders have been maintaining that the issue of BJP’s alliance with JS-TD combine is a subject matter of BJP national leadership. The AP unit would go by their decision.

Political analysts say it is more important for Jana Sena to finalise its alliance with TD and BJP for the reason that Pawan Kalyan is giving a series of assurances during his ongoing meetings that he will develop the state in a big way, finding fault with YSRC for failing to do so.

Analysts say if the tripartite alliance is not finalised within an appropriate time, JS will lose more than that BJP, as the latter’s presence in AP is relatively not up to the level of claiming power.

Further, they say the aim of all three major political parties – TD, JS and BJP, and other friendly parties is to dislodge the ruling YSRC government at any cost. It is thus better that they unite before the polls.

BJP national secretary Y. Satya Kumar said, “Of late, politics have come so dynamic that any decision has to be taken with proper care. Our party’s alliance with the JS-TD combo may be decided just one or two months before the polls, as was the case with polls in UP and other states. We are optimistic that our national leadership will take a good decision on this issue. Whatever the decision may be, we all will follow it scrupulously.”

For the time being, the AP BJP president has on her hands the big task of reaching out to people, setting up additional polling booth committees, publicising the central schemes, and solving local problems by taking them to the notice of the government.