For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Andhra Pradesh holds a unique place. It is among the few states in the country where the BJP does not have a single legislator or a parliamentarian.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP won four MLA seats and two MP seats in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). In the 2019 general elections, when the BJP performed better than it did in the previous term at the national level, the state unit’s show was abysmal. With zero seats, the vote share of the saffron party dipped to less than NOTA (None Of The Above).
However, in the last one year, the national party has been elevated to a place in the political arena of the state where it enjoys respect and camaraderie.
The three regional parties—the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and opposition parties, TDP and Janasena—are constantly at war with each other. But the arrows shot from these camps are rarely aimed at the BJP. It is also a peculiar situation where all the three parties seem to want or already have cordial relations with the BJP.
This week, there was a buzz that the YSRCP may join the NDA government at the Centre, filling up the vacuum left by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The central BJP leadership accorded special treatment to AP Chief Minister and YSRCP Chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and this has only strengthened the talk.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Jagan for more than 40 minutes in New Delhi, a rare gesture considering that no such meeting with any other state CM had taken place during the pandemic. While both parties subtly dismiss officially joining hands with each other, there is no vehement denial either.
The YSRCP has always maintained that their main interests lies in the welfare of the state and to achieve that they constructively engage with the Centre. As they govern a state, the economy of which is not in great shape, the YSRCP is playing it smart by not opening another front to battle it out based on ideological or political reasons. Hard to miss is the fact that YSRCP has extended support to many of the bills of the BJP. For the ones it did not, strong criticism against the NDA was missing. The party is also dependent on the Centre for the special category status. The YSRCP’s attitude towards the BJP has more or less remained the same even when they were in opposition. There was hardly any strong statements from YSRCP against Modi or the BJP.
Coming to the TDP, a turnaround has been noticed in the last two years. The TDP was an ally of the BJP and a member of the NDA till early 2018 after which the cracks became evident. The TDP pulled out of the NDA and Naidu and his team aggressively attacked Modi all through the election season.
Post the poll results in mid-2019, the TDP softened its stand against the BJP. Many of its members, including the spokespersons and MPs, moved to the BJP. According to sources, Naidu did make attempts to patch up with the BJP, but in vain as it did not yield any result. It is believed in political circles that Naidu only sent his “men” to the state BJP so as to bring the two parties closer. This has also upset certain groups of old-timers of AP BJP who saw this as an attempt to take over the party by outsiders.
Actor Pawan Kalyan left one extreme political spectrum to move to another, to finally land in the BJP camp. In last year’s elections, the actor’s party, Janasena, teamed up with the communist parties. After their combined debacle, which saw his party winning just one seat, Kalyan increasingly spoke with a strong Hindutva tone. He has openly tied up with the BJP and both the parties take the same stand on many issues related to the state.
Left with more friends than foes in the Andhra landscape, the BJP is not exactly in a mood to reciprocate in the same way, at the state-level. The state BJP has been aggressively attacking the YSRCP on religious issues, the latest being the alleged attacks on temples in the state. On the other hand, the state BJP leadership also takes on Naidu and TDP whenever an opportunity arises.