As the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition government in Andhra Pradesh is holding a big public meeting under the banner – “Super Six-Super Hit” at Anantapur on Wednesday evening, a peculiar situation appears to be prevailing in the state politics.
Ever since the coalition came to power in Andhra Pradesh, Jana Sena chief and deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan has been repeatedly advocating that the alliance among the TDP, Jana Sena and BJP should continue and Chandrababu Naidu should remain the chief minister for the next 15 years.
There were grumblings within the Jana Sena Party over Pawan Kalyan’s statements, but he continues to say at every public meeting that the coalition government should be in power for a long time to come.
He argues that if the coalition falls apart, the state will again slip into the hands of anarchic forces.
According to a senior Jana Sena leader, there is a reason Pawan Kalyan’s complete surrender to Naidu’s leadership.
“It requires enormous effort and thousands of crores of rupees, if he wants to come to power independently. And Pawan Kalyan neither has the patience to toil so hard nor the capacity to spend such massive sums,” he said.
Therefore, according to the Jana Sena leader, the current coalition arrangement suits Pawan Kalyan best — bringing both office and benefits without the burden of going it alone.
Party leaders also analyse that if Pawan Kalyan contests alone, even the current tally of seats would be difficult to achieve. They believe that distancing from Naidu would only strengthen YSRCP.
“Hence, they say, aligning with Chandrababu Naidu offers Pawan Kalyan more advantages than considering any other political path. That is why he has been chanting Naidu’s name repeatedly,” the party leader said.
On the other hand, Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh have been adopting a similar “surrender” strategy in dealing with the Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular. Both father-son duo have been chanting Modi’s name wherever there is an occasion.
At the India Today Conclave, Lokesh said the TDP would continue to support the NDA even in the 2029 elections, expressing confidence in Modi’s leadership.
“Though there is no guarantee that the BJP will return to power in 2029 and Modi will become the Prime Minister for the fourth time, the TDP leadership doesn’t want to antagonise him at any stage,” sources said.
According to a senior leader, Naidu, who had an alliance with the BJP and abruptly cut off the friendship in 2018 under the impression that Modi might not become the PM again in 2019, had to pay a big price for his hasty move.
“So, the lesson from the past appears to have made Chandrababu Naidu adopt a total surrender from-day-one approach. The situation is such that even when the BJP sought YSRCP’s support in the Vice-Presidential election — despite YSRCP being a rival of TDP-Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh — neither Naidu nor Pawan dared to speak up,” the leader said.