Telangana tie-up could herald Andhra alliance

NEWDELHI: The alliance between the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana could be a prelude to the two parties joining hands in Andhra Pradesh, according to two party functionaries familiar with the developments.

A Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh said on Sunday that the tie-up in Telangana has brightened the chances of an alliance between the two parties in the other Telugu-speaking state as well. “The only way to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level is if all the likeminded secular parties unite against the communal forces,” said the leader on the condition of anonymity.

Wary of having any truck with the YSR Congress Party, the Congress on its own is not in a position to form the government in Andhra Pradesh where the hold of the grand old party has weakened significantly after the bifurcation of the state in 2014.

The assessment within the Congress, another senior functionary said, is that the YSR Congress Party chief, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, might go with the BJP and there is also no chance of any reconciliation between the TDP and former ally BJP.

Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan is also an important player in the state’s politics, and has dismissed talk of being a part of any grouping. In this scenario, the two functionaries said the Congress feels that an alliance with the TDP could be a formidable

one for both the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections.

Officially, the Congress has maintained that it will go it alone and not have any tie-up with the TDP in Andhra Pradesh.

Both Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, Oommen Chandy, and state chief, N Raghuveera Reddy, have ruled out an alliance with any political party, although with a caveat that the final decision rests with the high command.

For its part, the state Congress has kept up its attack on both the TDP and the BJP over the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s failure to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh as per the commitments under the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014.

But a series of recent moves by both the TDP and the Congress has triggered speculation of the two coming together for the first time in Andhra.

It started in March with the decision of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to quit the Bjp-led NDA government at the Centre.