The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is trying to resurrect itself in Telangana, is likely to contest the upcoming state elections slated to be held in December this year. Though the TDP is looking to form an alliance with the BJP, so far, the BJP has not shown any signs of announcing the same. Sources now indicate that the BJP is disinclined towards committing to an alliance in Telangana until the political equation is worked out in Andhra Pradesh with TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena.
Telangana’s BJP leaders said an alliance is unlikely for the upcoming state elections. “We have not sought anything from the TDP. We cannot have an alliance here just for this election. That party has no cadre in any case, and its voters have shifted to the BRS,” said a BJP leader from Hyderabad.
Reports over the last few months have suggested that TDP has been in talks with the BJP over rejoining the NDA. Party supremo and ex-Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met BJP national president JP Nadda in June of this year. While the BJP leaders have ruled out an alliance with TDP in Telangana, TDP leaders do not dismiss the idea outright.
A senior TDP leader told TNM that his party will formally announce its alliance with the BJP in January next year, closer to the general elections and the AP state polls. “I won’t say that an alliance is off the cards for Telangana, as things have not been finalised. A decision will be announced in the next few days, as BJP also believes it needs our support,” he stated.
Even in the absence of a formal alliance, the BJP might choose to support TDP during the elections. Another BJP leader from Telangana said that while there was no formal alliance with the TDP now, they might offer their resources to the TDP if there is an understanding. “Those things can be discussed once we come to that point. It will look odd if we form an alliance here (Telangana) even before something in AP is formalised,” he added.
The TDP in Telangana witnessed political decline over the last two state elections. In the 2014 polls, held a few months before the state was bifurcated on June 2, the TDP and the BJP in an alliance won only 15 and five seats each out of 119. BRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) soon engineered 12 defections from the TDP and eight from the Congress cementing his party’s majority. Even though the TDP was weakened, Naidu, according to political observers, wanted his party running in both Telugu states.
The TDP hoped that it would win seats in the subsequent 2018 elections, as it was counting on the ‘settler’ votes, or AP migrants who have settled in Hyderabad and other districts like Khammam. The TDP in 2018, broke ties with the BJP over the Union government not giving ‘Special Category Status’ to AP. As elections approached, Naidu, for the first time in TDP’s history, announced an alliance with the Congress. It contested 14 seats as part of the alliance. This was a surprising moment as the TDP was originally founded by ex-AP Chief Minister NT Rama Rao as an anti-Congress platform.
That decision backfired on the TDP, as the alliance failed as they managed to secure only two seats and the Congress, 19. The BRS won 88 out of 119 seats. The AIMIM retained its seven seats in Hyderabad, and the BJP managed to hold on to only the Goshamahal seat. Moreover, KCR also managed to get 12 Congress MLAs and both TDP MLAs to defect to the BRS, rendering the opposition weak in the Assembly.
While the TDP has not been very active in Telangana, Naidu last year surprised everyone by appointing Kasani Gnaneshwar Rao Mudiraj as the new Telangana head. Gnaneshwar, a well-known Backward Class leader, unsuccessfully contested on a Congress ticket from Secunderabad in the 2018 state elections.