HYDERABAD: The BJP has been targeting to defeat the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh and the Congress in Telangana state in the next elections. To achieve this, the BJP is likely to support the YSRC indirectly in AP and the TRS in TS. The BJP is very keen to win more number of Lok Sabha seats than Assembly seats with the help of anti-Congress parties in both the Telugu states. There are speculations that the YSRC in AP and the TRS in TS have an understanding with the BJP. But both the YSRC and the TRS denied these speculations.
Two days ago, BJP national president Amit Shah held a meeting with senior AP BJP leaders and discussed the present political situation in the state. Mr Shah reportedly told to the BJP leaders that the TD in AP and Congress in Telangana should not win in the next general elections. A BJP senior leader said that the YSRC in Andhra Pradesh and the TRS in Telangana are not ready to have an open pact with the BJP. He said that the YSRC in AP feels that if it enters into an alliance with the BJP openly, it will lose Christian votes. In Telangana, TRS also feels that if they have an open alliance with the BJP, it will lose Muslim minority votes.
In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP does not have the strength to win in any Assembly or Lok Sabha seat on its own and it has to fight alone in the next elections. There are speculations that the BJP and Jana Sena may enter into an alliance in the last minute. A senior BJP leader said that the party leaders fear to contest in the Assembly or Lok Sabha elections. He said that in the Lok Sabha elections, each candidate has to spend about '20 crore.
The BJP leader asked that when there is no chance of winning, who will spend this much money? This time there will be no Modi wave in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. More over, many sections have distanced themselves from Modi due to several decisions taken by him in the last four years. Unless the national party provides the held over finance, the state BJP leaders in many Lok Sabha constituencies will not show interest.
According to top sources in the Assembly, wherever there are chances for Telugu Desam to win, in those seats, the BJP will help YSRC candidates indirectly.
In Telangana also, where Congress has winning chances, the BJP will indirectly support the TRS candidates. The BJP national leadership is of the view that the TRS and the YSRC will support the NDA after the 2019 elections as both the parties are against the Congress.
Where the BJP has no chance for victory, there it will see that the Congress in Telangana and Telugu Desam in AP does not win. There are speculations in political circles that the Congress and the TD may enter into an alliance in the next elections. The BJP leaders are of the opinion that if the Congress and TD do not have an alliance in the elections, after the elections, the TD may support the Congress to stop the BJP from coming to power.
