Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu has more or less ruled out having a tie-up with the Congress for both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state next year. Naidu, however, is ready to align with the Congress for the neighbouring Telangana Assembly elections which may be held inside the next two months.
Congress high command’s emissary, AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy recently approached TDP leaders to explore the possibilities of a composite seat sharing formula in both the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections. However, TDP’s senior leaders made it clear to Chandy that the Chief Minister was not interested in having any open seat sharing with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, sources in the AP unit of the Congress told this newspaper.
The main reason behind Naidu’s reluctance is that the Congress was summarily rejected by the people of the state the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections of 2014, so much so that the national party failed to win a single Assembly seat and lost deposits in more than 100 out of AP’s 175 Assembly seats. It lost all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in AP.
The Congress, which is seen as responsible for the bifurcation of the combined AP, has failed in Andhra miserably, and is trying to stage a comeback in the 2019 elections through alliances with a stronger party, other than the Bharatiya Janata Party. But none of the major parties—including YSR Congress and the newly born Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan—is interested in having a truck with the Congress.
Congress’ efforts to muster public support on a range of issues like securing special status for Andhra has received poor response from the people and this is a reason for these parties keeping away from the former. More than the fear of losing some seats to Congress, these parties are afraid of risking public wrath if they side with the party.
However, the Congress is seeing an opportunity to regain its lost ground in Andhra by championing the cause of special category status, which was promised to the state by the previous UPA government in the Rajya Sabha. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who recently visited Kurnool in AP, promised to grant the status to the state the moment his party came to power at the Centre.
Despite the Congress backing the status demand, Chief Minister Naidu is averse to allotting seats to it as he feels that the national party hasn’t been pardoned by the people of Andhra Pradesh. “People may be angry with the BJP for denying special status to AP, but they have also not forgotten the hasty division of the combined state four years ago by the Congress,” senior TDP leader and AP Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamoorthy told this newspaper.