Hyderabad: The much speculated Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) re-alliance seems to have hit a road block. The TDP, whose political fortunes are fast dwindling, is cosying up to its one time friend the BJP.
The embattled TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu even met the BJP chief Rajnath Singh during his visit to the national capital, last week. It led to wide spread speculations that both the parties will come together in October. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also invited him to return to the NDA at his public meeting in Hyderabad in last August.
Then, what is the problem? The TDP last two consecutive elections in 2004 and 2009 because of its alliance with the BJP, between 1999 and 2004. The Muslims voted against the TDP on both occasions.
However, the formation of the YSR Congress Party by YS Jaganmohan Reddy has changed the political equations in AP. According to political experts Jagan enjoys the support of most of minority votes. His firm stands against Telangana is also helping him in a big way to snatch votes from the TDP.
Left with no other option and a dwindling vote bank, worried Naidu is exploring the options of returning to the BJP to play a 'majority' politics. He is hoping that the TDP and BJP can win respectable number of seats riding on the Modi wave.
But, the AP unit of the BJP is not keen on shaking hands with the TDP. State BJP president and MLA Kishan Reddy is pouring cold water over the hopes of Naidu, saying that an alliance with the TDP would be suicidal for the BJP in both Telangana and Seemandhra. In Seemandhra, the TDP support base is eroding very fast because of it s double standards on Telangana. Even in Telangana, the TDP is viewed with suspicion. The BJP has some presence in Telangana and almost non-existent in Seemandhra.
The AP BJP hopes that going alone to polls will be much more beneficial than joining hands with the TDP.
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