Hyderabad: The BJP-Telugu Desam alliance appears to be on the rocks in Telangana state. Following the GHMC election debacle, the Warangal unit of the BJP has “requested” the party’s state leadership to allow it to go it alone in the forthcoming Warangal Municipal Corporation elections.
This was confirmed to DC by BJP spokesperson and MLC N. Ramchander Rao on Thursday. In fact, this appears to be the desire of many BJP leaders, who want ties with the TD snapped at the earliest since the combine’s fortunes in the state have been on the slide after the 2014 general elections.
The BJP core committee, headed by the party’s TS unit president G. Kishan Reddy met on Thursday to discuss the strategy for the Warangal, Khammam, Siddipet and Achampet municipal elections, besides other issues.
Many TS BJP leaders felt that the alliance with the TD has turned into a bane for the party and wanted the ties to end at the earliest. Desertion of senior leaders like E. Dayakar Rao and others has damaged the TD and left the BJP on a sticky wicket, they felt.
In the GHMC elections, the BJP, which expected 15 to 20 seats, could win only four seats, while the TD got on one of the 150 seats the allies contested. This was despite TD supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu and BJP’s national leaders campaigning.
The combine’s candidate Vijaypal Reddy also suffered a severe drubbing, coming third in the Narayankhed byelection. In the 2014 general elections, the TD had won 15 Assembly seats in TS and the BJP five.
“Many BJP leaders want the party to end its alliance because of the TD’s “Andhra party” image. BJP, which backed statehood for Telangana, may have done better if it had gone alone in 2014 elections and later the GHMC elections result has proved that continuing the alliance further will hit us hard,” a senior BJP leader said.
