Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam (TD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ) are likely to start talks on forging an electoral alliance in Andhra Pradesh, making it a three-party front, along with Jana Sena, against the YSR Congress.
State BJP chief Daggubati Purandeswari will be given the task of holding preliminary talks with the Telugu Desam, with Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan as a mediator. The actor-turned-politician who has announced a poll pact with the TD had not severed ties with the BJP and has constantly been propagating a tripartite alliance.
According to reliable sources, Hindutva organisations including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were “deeply concerned” about “widespread religious conversions” in the state and had been looking out for a political solution as they strongly believed that the “institutions engaged in conversions have been drawing strength from the presence of YSR Congress government.”
“It is hard to believe but coastal districts like Konaseema and Guntur have been witnessing large conversion into Islam, too,” sources in the Sangh Parivar told Deccan Chronicle. Sangh affiliate organisations including Samarasata Sewa Foundation and Jana Jagrurthi which extensively tour tribal areas and mingle with marginalised sections in the plain areas were said to have submitted reports of high incidence of conversions.
The right-wing organisations had also flagged the issue of filling the staff with Christians in majority residential schools, particularly those dedicated to girls, sources added.
However, there may not be total acceptance from the saffron brigade on reviving ties with the TD, which they blame for scuttling the growth of the BJP.
They argue that it was during the tenure of YSRC supremo and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tenure that the large construction of Rama temples in villages was taken up, and TD president and then CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, despite several requests, had withheld funds.
They see little difference in the BJP’s position if Naidu formed a government after the state elections scheduled next year.
Incidentally, K. Kannababu, former minister and YSR Congress MLA from the coastal Kakinada, dismissing as a “factually incorrect campaign” that conversions had increased, also cited the construction of not less than 1,000 Rama temples in every constituency and large release of funds for main temples to showcase the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s commitment to upkeep Hindu dharma.
The BJP had kept Naidu at bay after he fell out with the National Democratic Alliance and carried out a personalised attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose personal life he had criticised.
Ending a four-year stand against, the BJP central leadership recently granted an audience to the TD chief who held prolonged discussions with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda.
The BJP national leadership also informed Pawan Kalyan last week that it would invite him to Delhi to discuss the electoral alliances. “Much before Naidu’s arrest, the BJP had broached the possibilities of an alliance with the TD but apparently wanted to wait till the Telangana polls are over,” Jana Sena political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar said. “We will get some clarity in our next meeting with BJP.”
The TD is also open to an alliance with the BJP, as was evident from senior leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu stating that seat-sharing would be a secondary issue and could worked out after reaching an in-principle decision to fight together.
