HYDERABAD: It is total splitsville for the Telangana Telugu Desam and BJP which together fought the 2014 polls elections against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in TS.
Local leaderships of the two parties have given clear hints to their respective cadres that the separation between the two reached the ‘point of no return’ as the two parties had already taken different routes in Telangana despite their friendship at the Centre and also in Andhra Pradesh.
If a majority of leaders of BJP favour leaning towards the ruling TRS by the 2019 elections, a larger number of leaders in the TDP too are of the view that their party can no longer keep the saffron party’s leadership in good humour, given its recent “hobnobbing with the ruling party in the state.”
Further giving credence to this belief, according to sources, leaders of the TDP and the BJP have dropped subtle hints in this regard to their respective party cadres during the meetings of the state executive bodies of the two parties held separately on Saturday.
Sources in the BJP told Express that during the two-day state executive committee meeting held in Bhadrachalam on Friday and Saturday, many leaders felt that sailing along with the TDP would not give the BJP any advantage as the yellow party’s base is gradually eroding in the state.
They are, therefore, are of the view that they should continue to undertake agitations on their own against the TRS government in order to strengthen their party’s base in the state.
“If our party improves its strength in the state in the 2019 polls by holding agitations against the ruling establishment, our bargaining power will increase by that time. This will immensely help us during seat-sharing agreement with any potential party, including the ruling TRS, in the 2019 polls,” a senior leader of the BJP said.
As part of this strategy, the BJP state leadership has already asked its cadres to intensify agitations against the state government over issues such as farmers’ suicides, fee reimbursement, double bedroom houses and other unfulfilled promises of the TRS government.
A section of the party leaders strongly advocated that the party should gradually improve its relations with the state ruling party instead of remaining a passive partner to the TDP in the state.
When asked about the growing differences between the TDP and his party, BJP state unit president K Laxman said, “As there are no polls now, we are not thinking of alliances with any party at this juncture. Our aim now is to strengthen our party at the grassroots level by undertaking agitations against the anti-people policies of the state government.”
“Even though the TRS government is diverting central funds for other purposes, the state BJP leaders are unable to openly raise objections. Neither BJP nor Congress is able to question anti people's policies of state. It is only the TDP that is waging an uncompromising fight against TRS,” TTD working president A Revanth Reddy has claimed.