Will hurt ego allow an alliance between TDP and BJP?

Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which was made to sit in the Opposition for two consecutive terms, seems to be desperate to capture power this time, in the residual Andhra Pradesh, if not in both States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which will formally emerge on the political map of India on 2 June. An alliance with the BJP is important for the embattled TDP, but the current mutual disdain stems from the hardening stands of both parties. The TDP’s overtures for an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are too conspicuous to hide.[caption id=“attachment_1459235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. PTI[/caption] TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, who had dissuaded his brother-in-law Nanadamuri Balakrishna from attending the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat for the third time, however, was seen rubbing shoulders with the BJP top brass at the swearing-in of Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh. During the ceremony, the TDP chief was also seen interacting with the Gujarat chief minister. Ever since, the talk of a possible TDP-BJP pre-poll pact became a talking point in the political circles, the calculations on numbers also stared doing the rounds. Owing to the demand of ‘unreasonably high’ number of seats for Assembly and Lok Sabha by the BJP (45 and 9 in Telangana and 25 and 5 in Seemaandhra), the TDP found the talks heading nowhere. It is against this background that Chandrababu Naidu held telephonic parleys with Modi and also BJP national president Rajnath Singh on Sunday. BJP leaders in Telangana are of the view that there isn’t much difference on how the TDP and the BJP are positioned. In fact, the BJP has improved its stock in both regions from “nowhere to somewhere”, thanks to the burgeoning support base of Narendra Modi, they assert on many forums. Therefore, the BJP is not ready to buy the argument that it needs the TDP more than the TDP feeling the need for an alliance with the BJP. It is actually the other way round. However, Times of India reported on Monday that the TDP was suspecting that Telangana BJP unit president G Kishen Reddy was working in “cohorts with the YSR Congress”. TDP’s Rajya Sabha member CM Ramesh was quoted as saying that his party was aware of how Kishen Reddy won the election in Amberpet. In fact, Naidu had expressed his displeasure in his telephonic conversation with Arun Jaitley over Kishan Reddy’s announcement that the seat-sharing talks between the two parties had failed. Meanwhile, Kishan Reddy lost no time in opening a dialogue with KCR, at the behest of some Telangana leaders of the party. The BJP feels a marriage between the TRS and the BJP would yield a ‘wonderful result’. The TDP is cut up with this instant reaction of the Telangana BJP unit. Coming to Seemaandhra region, TDP leaders strongly opine that Modi’s popularity may come as a shot in the arm for them too. Therefore, they want an amicable solution between the two parties. In the process of give-and-take, the BJP is trying to arm-twist the TDP on at least four: • The TDP, which was decimated in 1998 Lok Sabha elections, piggybacked on the BJP and posted a resounding victory and also retained power in the State in 1999, thanks to the one-vote defeat of Vajpayee regime in Lok Sabha and Kargil War. • The BJP thinks that it had to pay a heavy price by hitchhiking on the back of the TDP in 2004 elections. The BJP leaders on more than one occasion openly objected to the TDP abjuring the alliance with the BJP, soon after 2004 polls. • The BJP is using the latest track record of consecutive defeats of the TDP in several byelections to embarrass the latter. • The latest NTV-Nielsen Survey, conducted up to 27 March and aired on Sunday night, projected the YSRC as the biggest grosser in Seemaandhra and the TRS, in Telangana. While the BJP is trying to portray that the TDP was desperate to have an alliance with it, the TDP’s retort comes in the form of assessing the strengths of both parties. The TDP’s complain against the BJP’s “self-aggrandized posturing” goes so far that it wants the latter to desist from treating the former as an easily impressionable party. In the event of TRS aligning with the BJP, the tie-up with the TDP would no longer be plausible in Telangana. Though some TDP leaders suggest that the party could mull over an alliance with the BJP at least in Seemaandhra region, the BJP insiders say it’s easy for them to leave the option of embracing the YSR Congress in the post-poll scenario, as it would add up to the numbers of the National Democratic Alliance. The TDP, for the record, never contested any elections alone. The attempts to forge an alliance with all the anti-Congress parties went kaput in 1983, as none of them could foresee the political charisma of NT Rama Rao translating into votes. Yet, the TDP had Sanjay Vichar Manch to align in with it in a five seats. Ever since, the Communists and the BJP, collectively and individually, sailed with the TDP in all elections. Out of the niggardly two Lok Sabha seats won by the BJP in 1984, one seat—Hanamkonda (BJP’s C Janga Reddy defeating PV Narasimha Rao)—was a gift of the TDP’s alliance. Since then, the TDP always had an alliance with one party or the other. Being the cobbler of National Front, United Front and even the NDA, the TDP played a crucial role in national politics. While the TDP’s strength of playing a key role in national politics stems from this experience, it never went to polls on its own. In spite of cobbling up a grand alliance with Communists and the TRS, the TDP failed to prevent the Congress, which contested alone, from renewing its victory in 2009 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.