VIJAYAWADA: Telugu Desam’s decision to boycott parishad elections is turned into a blessing in disguise for BJP, which has been arduously trying to strengthen its base in Andhra Pradesh to emerge as the main opposition party.
Ever since the yellow party suffered humiliation in 2019, the BJP has been trying to take over as the main opposition party. They went in vain as TD successfully countered those efforts through various acts, including showing itself as the saviour of Hinduism. But now the BJP can gradually attract TD supporters into its fold. The TD, BJP and Jana Sena boycotted the all-party meeting conducted by the SEC for the Parishad elections.
While TD announced that it would not contest, BJP decided to make good use of the opportunity. Even Jana Sena, which increased its performance in the recent municipal and Corporation elections, is also banking on the parishad elections to revitalise itself.
Around 7,295 candidates were in the fray for 7,321 MPTC seats in 13 districts. As many as 6,659 candidates were contesting from TD, 1,205 from BJP, 1,154 Jana Sena and 2,687 independent candidates for the MPTC elections.
Similarly, elections would be held for 526 ZPTC seats for which 526 candidates are from YSRC, 482 TD, 275 BJP, 168 Jana Sena and 641 independents. The YSRC won 2,217 MPTC seats unanimously, while 101 were won unanimously by TD, Jana Sena 4 and 49 MPTC seats unanimously by others. In all, 126 ZPTC seats were unanimous and all went into the YSRC kitty.
A total of 7,541 candidates from TD were in the fray in the MPTC and ZPTC elections and they are going to restrain from elections due to the party high command’s boycott decision.
Senior political analysts stated that TD had 38-40 percentage, JS had 5% and BJP 1-2 percentage on the basis of 2019 Assembly elections. They said that the voting percentage of TD dropped to 30% in the recent local body elections but JS showed improvement.
They stated that according to the trends nearly 30% of voters are against the government hence they would choose an alternative party to cast their votes in the parishad elections. This will brighten the prospects of both BJP and JS, who can strengthen their base.
They recalled that the Hindutva trademark belongs to BJP but TD hijacked it in order to restrain BJP from consolidating its base. TD launched a series of protests on temple attacks, illegalities in Tirumala Tirupati and other religious issues.
Analysts opined that people would support those leaders, who will fiercely fight on their issues even in opposition. They stated that they could have won seats with 30% votes but staying away from the parishad elections would be a body-blow to the TD cadre and this could prove costly for the party in the future.
BJP AP president Somu Veerraju said that they are contesting parishad elections to stake a claim as the ‘real opposition party’ in AP as people believe they can restrain the anarchic acts of YSRC.
