BJP dreams of blazing successful Tirupati political trail in AP

Pinning high hopes on Andhra Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to commence its political conquest
BJP dreams of blazing successful Tirupati political trail in AP

AMARAVATI: Pinning high hopes on Andhra Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to commence its political conquest of the southern state from Tirupati.

"Saffron's first stop in AP is Tirupati. After the spectacular surge in Telangana, now people of Tirupati are showing their inclination towards BJP," claimed Sunil Deodhar, BJP national secretary and co-incharge for the state.

Balli Durga Prasad, the sitting MP from ruling Yuvaja Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) succumbed to coronavirus recently, giving an opportunity for the national party to seriously test the Telugu political waters for the long haul.

The vacancy in the temple town presented itself as an unexpected opportunity for BJP as occupying the Parliament seat in Tirupati will have a massive symbolic value, mirroring Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding Varanasi constituency.

On Saturday, the party held its state executive meeting in Tirupati, which was started with Deepa Prajwalan (lighting the lamp) and Vandemataram.

It was the first state executive meeting after constituting several appointments to the party. "This was the first state executive meeting. We deliberated on several issues such as the current and future politics of the state," said AP BJP president Somu Veerraju.

Following the meeting, BJP took out a rally in Tirupati, which according to Veerraju was attended by BJP activists as well as common Tirupati folk.

"My special thanks to Tirupati people for exhibiting enthusiasm to trounce corrupt family parties," he said.

Family parties here refer to YSRCP and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Since the early 1980s, AP has been mostly a two-party state, Congress and TDP. However, Congress imploded under the visionless adventurous opportunism displayed by Sonia Gandhi.

YSRCP has emerged as one of the identifiable political forces, along with TDP as Congress lost its base and is as good as non-existent, though some people like Harsha Kumar envision otherwise.

Now this is where BJP wants to carve a niche for itself to make it big in the future in AP, which the hustings will tell.

If we assume that YSRCP has replaced Congress and TDP has its original base intact, it remains to be seen where BJP wants to sneak in, as there is not much political room available in a traditionally two-party state, though Left parties and others exist with not much of an impact.

However, BJP has high hopes on its local ally Janasena, run by actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, with not so impressive political track record.

After a belligerent campaign in which he endorsed himself as the chief ministerial candidate, Kalyan lost both the seats he contested in the 2019 elections, including failing to win the loyalty of the lone party MLA who sings paeans to the welfare-centric AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Some political pundits say that BJP can benefit from Kalyan's image in Tirupati as the caste factor could play a key role, which many believe helped Chiranjeevi save face in the 2009 elections with a win in Tirupati, though he embarrassingly lost in his home district from where his in-laws and relatives hail - Palakollu. (IANS)

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