The very mention of 2019 elections makes politicians of all hues behave like a horse in a battle at the sound of the bugle.
With the next elections in mind, the BJP is trying to spread in Andhra Pradesh unobtrusively though it is a bit of a challenge for the party generals. Heady with the success cocktail in the North, the BJP is intent on saffronising the Southern State of AP as well. It has already got its act together - the foot soldiers of the party are active in trying to drum up support of the people by highlighting the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led Hindutva development government at the Centre.
BJP’s electoral pied piper Amit Shah is back with his charm, after crafting a success in the North for the party. He will be in Guntur on May 25, just a few days ahead of the annual TDP’s jamboree at Visakhapatnam. Recently, the saffron party held a meeting in Anantapur where the party got down to brass tacks - identifying its Achilles heel - lack of booth level committees which are a sine qua non for any party to fare well in the elections. For the meeting, BJP State in-charge Siddharth Nath Singh turned up, giving Amit Shah’s piece of mind to the cadre on making the party strong and visible in AP.
But the game is a little dicey for not only for the BJP but also for the TDP as there is a bond of friendship existing between them and yet they want to grow at the expense of other. If one party grows, it is a cause for concern for the other. Though the TDP is a little flustered over the saffron party’s efforts to make inroads into the South, particularly in AP, it is not saying it openly.
“We as a political party want to grow. What is wrong in it? Just because the TDP is our ally, it does not mean we should not expand,” said a senior BJP leader. But the renewed enthusiasm in the BJP, particularly after its spectacular feat in the North, smacks of a conscientious attempt to raise the bar this time at the time of sharing of seats.
Though the TDP leaders say they are a game if the BJP tries to improve its base in the State as they are quite certain that it would have to depend on Telugu Desam to win whatever number of seats it contests.
When AP TDP president Kala Venkata Rao said recently that “it is okay with us if the BJP tries to improve its position in the State,” he probably was implying that for one thing the TDP does not want to hurt the BJP and for the other, it is conveying subtly that the BJP would not be able to make any deep inroads into the political landscape.
After the TDP takes stock of the political situation in the State and craft a strategy to consolidate its position at the three-day Mahanadu beginning in Visakhapatnam on May 28, there would be a big ticket conference of the BJP - party’s two-day national executive - at the same place on July 15 and 16 where Modi and Amit Shah would be spending considerable time on ways to make the presence of BJP felt in AP. The very fact that the top honchos of the party are meeting in Visakhapatnam means that the BJP’s Jadugar Amit Shah has set his eyes on AP.
Even though TDP leaders feel butterflies flying in their stomach, they are not showing it lest it might work counterproductive since the TDP needs the BJP badly for help for building the State brick by brick and for fuelling mammoth projects like Polavaram and Amaravati.
The BJP can hurt the TDP alright - in fact BJP’s Somu Veerraju appears to have been given the job of showing the TDP its place with his tongue lashing whenever the saffron party begins to get a feeling that the TDP is going overboard ignoring the BJP, but the TDP cannot afford the same luxury.
Although it is generally agreed that
Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan would finally be part of coalition calculus to be carefully crafted by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu to defeat the YSR Congress, at the moment, the matinee idol prefers to appear as a lone-ranger.
Despite criticism that he is faster than Houdini in playing the vanishing trick after making an appearance, he, however, tries to remind the people that he was there in the ring to fight for the rights of the people though critics believe that his job is only to alienate Kapus from the fold of YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, which is expected to be beneficial to the TDP.