Hyderabad: Three major political parties, the Telugu Desam, YSR Congress and Jana Sena, are confining themselves to Andhra Pradesh for the forthcoming Parliamentary elections and are not interested in Telangana state.
The YSRC and the Jana Sena did not contest the recent Telangana Assembly elections as they both said they were concentrating on the AP Assembly elections and had no time for the Telangana elections which were held ahead of schedule.
The YSRC had said it would concentrate on the 2024 Assembly elections, but the Jana Sena had said it would contest the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana. It has announced its Malkajgiri Lok Sabha candidate but no others. The TD was very much a contender in the Telangana Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress, but it will be keeping away from the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana.
The YSRC and Jana Sena have no party cadre in Telangana and the TD is in almost the same position. In the Assembly elections in TS in December last year, AP Chief Minister and TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu had been involved in selecting candidates. But for these upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he has left the decision whether to contest or not to the Telangana unit of the party.
Only two days are left for filing nominations but the Telangana unit of the TD has not taken a decision on whether to contest the elections. After the state bifurcation, Mr Naidu had said that AP and Telangana are like two eyes to him. Gradually, though, he has stopped concentrating on Telangana. Very many senior TD leaders have left the party in the past four years.
Both the TD and the YSR Congress have their hands full fighting each other in AP where both are strong and have strong cadres across the state. The Jana Sena has no such strong party cadre across the state, but only in some areas.
In Telangana, all three parties have been marginalised by the TRS which is becoming stronger by the day, and the main Opposition party in the state, the Congress, is losing hope.
