Vijayawada: The BJP is enjoying the hide and seek game between Telugu Desam (TD) and YSRC. The latest revelation of YSRC chief Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy that he would go with the BJP in case it fulfills the assurance of giving ‘Special Category’ status to AP is to create confusion among the TD leadership, according to poll strategists.
At the same time, BJP doesn’t want to give any straight indication over its alliance ‘maryada’ with the Telugu Desam. The BJP headquarters wants to elicit the strengths and weaknesses of both the parties.
Now, the BJP is trying to consolidate the political atmosphere in AP by proposing the name of Kanna Lakshminarayana as the state BJP president. Since TD and YSRC have their own caste tags, BJP wants to woo ‘Kapus’ (an agrarian community) as well as Backward Classes (BCs) as their warriors for the 2019 battle.
However, the state BJP has different observations. “Special category status is a closed chapter and the BJP do not want ties with any party based on this. The Centre has been doing a better job than the ‘Special Category’ status with the special package. So, the question of tying up with any party, even if it is YSRC, does not arise now. At present our party is in alliance with the TD,” BJP national executive member and MLC, Somu Veerraju said.
The TD also reacted as anticipated by stating that the YSRC president is getting frustrated due to fear of being jailed and hence is talking like this. TD Urban party president Budhha Venkanna has stated that the BJP is intact and one should understand the fact that it did not have an alliance with parties or individuals who have had criminal records.
In a recent nation-wide survey conducted by a National TV channel, it was indicated that there is a neck to neck race between the TD and YSRC, in Parliament segments.
The survey stated that YSRC has an edge over the TD in the 13 Lok Sabha segments while the TD stands better over YSRC in 12 Lok Sabha segments.
TD National Chief N. Chandrababu Naidu termed the survey as a manipulated one and interestingly its alliance partner-BJP has been maintaining silence over the outcome of the survey, with particular reference to Telugu states. However, Naidu had his own survey revealing that their tally would be intact.
But, the ruling TD couldn’t assess the attitude of the BJP towards Jaganmohan Reddy, according to Delhi poll pundits. BJP’s strategic silence on the issues raised by the TD over the YSRC Chief has been worrying the TD leadership as it is anticipating transparency in their alliance ‘dharma’ with the BJP.
