BJP may have a pre or post-poll alliance with either Jagan or Pawan Kalyan.
BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday predicted a BJP-led government in Andhra Pradesh after the 2019 elections. The AP Assembly along with the Lok Sabha is expected to go to polls in April-May next year.
Madhav was addressing a party meeting at Guntur in Andhra on the occasion of the completion of four years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. This was the biggest ever gathering of the BJP after it parted ways with the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the state. By forecasting a BJP-led government, Ram Madhav, who is also in charge of party affairs in Andhra, suggested a pre-poll or post-poll alliance with other parties, most probably, Jagan’s YSR Congress or Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena. As CM and TDP chief, Chandrababu Naidu is expected to move closer to Congress and the Left and the BJP might join hands with other players.
Ram Madhav lashed out at Naidu and his TDP government for being steeped in various corruption scams including alleged misdeeds at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD). “We have heard of corruption in Polavaram irrigation project and development of the capital city. Now they (TDP) are not leaving the God’s funds at TTD,” said Ram Madhav, evoking loud applause from the crowds. The fourth anniversary celebrations of the Modi government were also utilised to install newly appointed Andhra BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana in office. Kanna, a former Congress veteran, joined the BJP four years ago and was made the party’s unit chief in AP, keeping in view his Kapu background, a community that is numerically strong in six out of 13 districts of AP.
But Madhav said that the appointment of Kanna had nothing to do with his caste background and that he was a senior leader with more experience than Chandrababu Naidu and deserved a leadership role in Andhra. The BJP general secretary cautioned his party leaders in AP to be united and defeat the caste politics of TDP.
Ram Madhav told the BJP activists and cadre not to be disheartened with the developments in Karnataka where a JDS-Congress government came to power. “In Karnataka, BJP almost won the state though we fell short of just eight seats. We treat it as our victory and the opening of doors to the BJP in the South India. The same will happen in Andhra in next year’s elections,” he said.
He called upon the BJP leaders to work hard and win enough number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats so as to compete with the ruling TDP and opposition YSR Congress. Only then, the BJP would be in a position to not only join but also lead a coalition government in the state. The BJP general secretary told the cadre that he can guarantee that PM Modi would come back to power after 2019.
Ram Madhav said: “We have this guarantee as three persons are tirelessly working for BJP’s victory in the next elections—one is PM Modi, another is Amit Shah and the third one is Rahul Gndhi.”