Just months ahead of next year’s general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deployed its national general secretary Ram Madhav to settle alliance with disgruntled National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Ram Madhav met senior TDP leaders over the last weekend to salvage their relationship and clear all misconceptions. He later said the problem between the two allies is not political, but a contention of development. Hence, it is wrong to give it a political colour.
Trouble between TDP and BJP began after Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu lashed out against the government for not announcing any major monetary support for his state under this month’s budget. His disappointment was so grave that he even met senior party leaders to take a call on whether to break their alliance with BJP, which they later refused to do.
As far as BJP is concerned, several of its state unit leaders had already been lobbying for a split, and had even started looking at TDP’s rivals YSR Congress as potential allies. They had even raised this issue with the central leadership, forcing Naidu to serve an ultimatum of sorts to BJP, saying he was ready to chart his own course if they did not wish to stay with him.
Some BJP leaders said these problems are only a result of regular functioning with TDP being hampered by factors like Siddharth Nath Singh, the then national general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, later relieving his duties to become a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, and senior Telugu leader Venkaiah Naidu becoming India’s Vice-President last year.
Despite their differences over issues like denial of special status to Andhra Pradesh and lack of funding for Amravati, TDP has not gone to the extent of breaking its alliance with BJP because it needs them, too. Considering the fact that TDP’s vote share in 2014 polls was only marginally less than that of rivals YSR Congress, Naidu’s party will need BJP to support it in next year’s assembly elections.
Whether BJP remains in alliance with TDP, its biggest southern partner, or whether they will go their own separate ways, will all depend on meetings like the one Ram Madhav has undertaken with his counterparts.