The parties will contest all coming polls in next four years.
Hyderabad: Power star Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena party has joined hands with BJP in Andhra Pradesh, and both the parties have announced that they will contest all the coming elections in the next four years. This is a major development concerning Andhra Pradesh as the BJP is trying to get a foothold in the state whose political field is mainly divided between the ruling YSR Congress and Opposition TDP.
There is speculation that TDP, too, would join this alliance at a later stage, depending on the political situation in the state, but as of now, Pawan Kalyan would work together with the BJP on all major issues, including the campaign to support the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), NPR (National Population Register) etc. This is a sort of boost to BJP in the South India in recent times.
Culminating the behind-the-scenes efforts for the last three months, Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan had a detailed meeting with BJP’s working president J.P. Nadda who would become its national president next week in Delhi on 13 January. Later, leaders of the two parties held elaborates talks in Vijayawada on 16 January and announced their alliance.
There were suggestions from BJP top leadership that Pawan Kalyan should merge his party with them, but the latter preferred to go for an alliance keeping in view the changing political equations in Andhra Pradesh, where a regional party will have bigger appeal than that of BJP directly. However, Pawan Kalyan had told the media after the joint meeting that the alliance was unconditional and would be there for long-term.
In the recent Parliament and Assembly elections, both the parties have fared poorly, Jana Sena securing a vote share of around 6%and one MLA seat, while the BJP getting less than 2% vote share and nil seats. However, leaders of both the sides exuded confidence that their alliance would break this arithmetic and grow exponentially.
“It is not two plus two in our case; we will multiply our force in the coming days and show that will capture political power in Andhra Pradesh in the 2024 Assembly elections,” said BJP’s Andhra unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana, while addressing the media after the joint meeting of two sides. Another senior BJP leader and national secretary and Andhra in-charge Sunil Deodhar endorsed the view. The deal sealed in the presence of senior BJP leaders former Union minister D. Purandeswari and Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao. Nadda directed the state leaders to work with Pawan and see that they should contest together all coming polls, including the Gram Panchayats slated to be held in February or March. Pawan Kalyan is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minster Amit Shah soon.
One major issue which would be championed by both the parties is the interests of the farmers who had given their lands for the capital city project of Amaravati. Till now, BJP hasn’t taken an official stand on the Amaravati issue, but now passed a resolution backing the ongoing stir by farmers for the last one month. This agitation is mainly supported by TDP and backed by Jana Sena too.
Already under pressure from TDP on the capital shifting issue, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government will find it more difficult to face the combined attack from Jana Sena and BJP too in the coming days.
That is why the YSR Congress ministers and legislators had launched a scathing attack on Pawan Kalyan for joining hands with BJP. These leaders had ridiculed Kalyan for sailing with the Left parties—CPI and CPIM—till recently and now joining with BJP. “How can a leader flirt with both the Left parties and BJP in such a short time?” asked AP Information and Public Relations Minister Perni Naani.
Another senior MLA of YSR Congress Ambati Rambabu said: “Pawan doesn’t have his own mind to take decisions, he mostly follows what Chandrababu Naidu tells him to do. They have also cautioned the BJP leaders against Pawan Kalyan’s hidden agenda.
However, Kalyan’s close aides have justified the move to align with BJP in Andhra Pradesh. “We have taken this decision after elaborate discussions within our party and we will provide a better alternative to people of Andhra Pradesh,” said Jana Sena senior leader and former Speaker of combined AP Assembly Nadendla Manohar.