Why Chandrababu Naidu implored BJP for a tie-up? Can he ask special category status for AP again?

AMARAVATHI: Why the TDP has implored the BJP for an alliance? Why had it always held the strings of the Jana Sena Party and remained its puppeteer?

Chandrababu Naidu indeed importuned the Jana Sena, for it is a junior partner; and entreated the BJP for letting him into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), as it is a mighty political force in India.

But, can Chandrababu Naidu ask the BJP to include Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh in the common manifesto of upcoming elections?

He had eschewed it when in power and agreed to a special package which had also remained elusive and finally Naidu met his nemesis at the hustings.

Chandrababu Naidu’s politics are eldritch. Except the YSR Congress led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, there is no political party in undivided Andhra Pradesh -- and in some cases in India -- that never had a brush with the TDP.

Also Read: TDP-BJP-JSP deal sealed: Number of seats to be decided soon

Journey with political alliances have been the destination for the TDP ever since its infant days under its founder the late N T Rama Rao. The only occasion when the TDP had gone it alone to polls was in 2019 and the result was too stark a reality for it to realise where it stands.

The TDP, under Naidu, is too malleable and ductile. It had swung like a pendulum from the left to the right and back and forth many a time. It’s all a marriage of political convenience and opportunity for him, because he either can embrace or eschew anyone pursuing any school of thought for his own political gains.

Also Read: Chandrababu Naidu, Purandeshwari meet JP Nadda, spark rumours of TDP-BJP alliance in Andhra Pradesh

Is it political legerdemain or being in a simple harmonic motion for his own advantage? The answer is obvious.

Naidu’s urgent need is to fight elections, especially the humongous presence of the YSR Congress under Jagan. The BJP, which has been cordial with Jagan all these years and enjoyed his support in getting numerous Bills passed for want of a majority in the Upper House, has turned tables against him. But is it because the BJP doesn’t like Jagan? Perhaps, not.

Also read: Can Pawan Kalyan broker peace between TDP, BJP? Will he budge to less number of seats in alliance?

The BJP has a definite target number of seats to win in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “400-paar” slogan. The BJP wants to win 370 on its own and cross 400 with allies. It’s fledgling presence below the Vindhyas may totter the target.

That is why it is consolidating its position either on its own or buttressing alliances wherever possible.

The poll pact with the TDP and Jana Sena is surely part of that mission. The BJP feels it has indeed strengthened even in Andhra Pradesh since 2019, thanks to Modi’s growing influence. It is of a firm belief that it could outsmart its own performance of 2014. For this precise reason, it hasn’t announced the seat-sharing pattern. The BJP is indeed doing a hard bargain for more seats in the Lok Sabha and Assembly.

Apparently, Chandrababu Naidu could make Pawan Kalyan fall in line to acquiesce one out of the three Lok Sabha seats already announced for his party as part of the alliance.

BJP wants 11 Lok Sabha seats

Grapevine in Delhi has indicated that it’s not five, six or eight Lok Sabha seats that the BJP is asking for. It is insisting on 11 Lok Sabha seats and one Assembly seat each under all the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State.

How many of them would be conceded to the BJP by Chandrababu Naidu has yet to be seen.

If he yields ground, he will have to become a puppet in the hands of the BJP which is notorious for its strongarm politics, Of course, this situation arises only if the alliance ascends to power in Andhra Pradesh.

If not, the BJP would not mind dropping him like hot potato, for it is expecting that it will form the government at the Centre on its own without anybody’s support.

Chandrababu Naidu’s current associate Kanna Lakshminarayana, a former president of the AP unit of the BJP, had told in an interview to a TV channel that Naidu, as the Chief Minister and NDA partner, had always sought the BJP to have YS Jagan arrested.

Naidu would renew this agenda with the BJP, if he were elected to power. This time with vengeance, as Jagan had Naidu incarcerated for over 50 days.

HJow will the TDP cadres adjust? What with the party’s poll truck with Pawan Kalyan, embers of discord are already simmering within the TDP’s rank and file which had nursed their respective constituencies for five years now. The tie-up with the BJP would water down the political aspirations of some more TDP leaders. Would they remain with Naidu or tend to throw their weight behind Jagan, albeit, surreptitiously will be a matter of interest to watch.