New Delhi: When BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav issued a statement against Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) recently highlighting what the Modi government has done for Andhra Pradesh in the last 4 years, it wasn’t without reason.
After ensuring successive victories in the north eastern states and troubleshooting with a treacherous ally in PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, Madhav is now heading south.
He will now be handling BJP affairs in Andhra Pradesh where the party is hoping to expand its footprint with the TDP walking out of the NDA and embarrassing the Centre with a no-confidence motion.
Madhav was present at the stock-taking meeting called by BJP president Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi on Saturday. With just two MPs and four MLAs, the BJP does not have much stakes in Andhra and feels it has to arrest the sentiments being built by the TDP on the Centre’s 'betrayal' which has called the BJP ‘Break Janta Promise’.
Sources say that the alliance with Naidu had meant that the BJP didn’t get many seats to contest and, if they were to contest on their own, then they would only better their tally.
Madhav is believed to have told Shah that he is fairly confident that BJP will emerge as the kingmaker in 2019 in Andhra Pradesh when the Assembly elections are held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls if the party goes alone.
“In a post poll scenario, keeping with its tradition of aligning with the Centre, the winner of the 25 Lok Sabha seats will be an ally of the NDA, or both Andhra parties can back us,” said a BJP leader, drawing an analogy with the UPA when the two UP parties — SP and BSP — on opposite side of the fence in the state had supported it in Parliament.
The trust-deficit between the TDP and the BJP has been aggravating over the years. Sources say that PM Narendra Modi hadn’t given any audience to Naidu for over a year when reports of corruption in building of the capital city of Amravati started surfacing.
A top government source said, “Rs 2, 500 crore was sanctioned by the Centre for the construction of the state Assembly and government offices but not even a foundation stone has been laid. For the last few months, we have been asking Naidu to take an additional Rs 9, 500 crore cheque but he has refused to give clarity on projects and expenditure and is trying to generate a false impression of Centre’s non-cooperation.”
Madhav, who will be travelling to Andhra Pradesh next week, has his task cut out. He has to first dispel the impression of the BJP going back on its poll promise of special category status for Andhra Pradesh for 10 years.
At the same time, the party is looking at developments in neighbouring Telangana closely with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao giving a call for a non-BJP, non-Congress Third Front.
But if politicking and optics are concerned, it has to be understood why the TRS and AIADMK stormed the well of the Lok Sabha taking the steam off the protests of the TDP. Top BJP sources say that four to five TDP MPs are in touch with the BJP leadership and Naidu’s concerns could multiply in the next few weeks besides the challenge coming from YSR Congress'Jaganmohan Reddy.
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