The major political parties in Andhra Pradesh are busy finalizing action plans for setting equations with opponents. The strategical moot questions are: What political combinations will emerge? Will those groupings sway the electorate for 2024 polls? These to analyze the party strength and change the game plan.
One thing is clear from the present situation: there is no room for any single political party to sweep the polls. The sky- rocketing prices of essential commodities, frequent hikes in fuel prices, significant increase in power tariff are weighing heavily on the minds of common people.
Political combinations among the major players look inevitable. Presently both ruling and opposition parties are influencing people in all possible ways. Ruling YSR Congress Party, headed by Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy, is moving heaven and earth to retain power. Having declared that it is there for the long haul, the ruling party must establish its credentials for people rarely give opportunity for any party to rule continuously for decades together. The YSR Congress Party came to power easily on the strength of YSR’s image in the hearts of people.
It rode to power by making a humble request to give it ‘only one chance’ to rule the state. It got that one opportunity to rule. Now, it has to approach people again for another chance. Given the rise in prices of essential commodities as well as hike in power tariff and fuel prices, it is simply not possible for the ruling YSR Congress party to retain power, regardless of its high expectations.
A recast cabinet geared for polls has become significant for CM Jagan. However, it is believed that he succumbed to pressure for retaining nearly dozen members of his previous cabinet. Jagan is enjoying power with the strength of 151 members in the legislative Assembly, which is 63 seats more than the half way mark in the House. Jagan is believed to be going ahead with the agenda set by political strategist Prashant Kishor.
The principal opposition Telugu Desam Party is struggling to regain the ground it had lost. So, it is in need of support to take on ruling YSRC. The Jana Sena Party (JSP) appears to be the answer for TDP.
Both the parties have already given signals in this regard that there would be united opposition in the coming elections against YSRC. JSP, headed by film actor Pawan Kalyan, has stated categorically that it would not allow the anti-Jagan votes to split. This has caused worries for the ruling YSRC; for, the statistics of combined votes polled in the last Assembly elections of 2019 are clearly against the ruling YSRC.
The YSRCP, therefore, dared Pawan Kalyan to contest 140 seats on his own. YSRC leadership chose to describe Pawan as ‘foster son ‘ of TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu. Ruling party leaders heckled Pawan that he would end up his show by accepting 30-40 Assembly seats as part of package offered by Chandrababu in forthcoming General Election.
Why did YSRC take the comments of Pawan so seriously and pass calculated comments on the latter’s political journey in near future?Is Pawan slowly becoming a force to take on YSRC by uniting opposition parties in the state? These are some of the questions that are making the rounds in the public domain. How can Pawan take BJP, Left and Congress along with him? Will the three parties agree to follow the path set by Pawan? What about their ideological differences?Such questions come to the minds of many.
TDP founder and former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh N. T. Rama Rao had successfully implemented this ‘unity’ formula in Lok Sabha elections of 1984. He successfully convinced Communists and BJP, ideologically different parties that had never worked together. But it was possible with the charismatic leadership of NTR and that idea of united opposition was grand success in that elections. Left and BJP,as per the adjustment, had confined themselves to seats allotted to them. Such combination did not work effectively in Khammam Lok Sabha seat.
Congress candidate and former chief minister Jalagam Vengal Rao had emerged victorious over CPI’s nominee Parsa Satyanarayana with a margin of 59,000 votes. Impressed by this, then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi inducted Jalagam into his cabinet and made him Union Minister for Industries.
Pawan has to follow NTR for the success of united opposition formula. Pawan Kalyan has proved to be a gamechanger. In 2014, he supported TDP-BJP combine by not contesting the elections. TDP won on the occasion. Pawan contested in the subsequent elections of 2019 and divided anti-YSRCP votes that helped the latter to storm to power.
There has been another instance in which Grand alliance or Maha kutami aka united opposition got defeated. In the 2009 elections, the combination included TDP and TRS. But, thanks to the able leadership of Y. S.Rajasekhar Reddy, such effort did not work out. YSR retained power in 2009.
Both NTR and YSR are peculiar personalities in politics and those two could fight against strong political opponents. Will Pawan follow in the footsteps of the two towering personalities? Political situation in those days came in handy for NTR and YSR to win over the hearts of people. The same will be planned to snatch the rule from YSRCP this time. #KhabarLive #hydnews
