The president of the Andhra Pradesh BJP unit G Kishan Reddy is likely to lose his job for openly opposing his party central leadership's plan to forge an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party.
Reddy, who hails from Telangana and is a staunch supporter of the statehood cause, has been consistently opposing the idea of a tie-up with the TDP as he considers the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu as an anti-Telangana leader.
Moreover, given the past experience, the BJP leader feels that joining hands with TDP would adversely affect the saffron party's chances of improving its base in Telangana region.
However, as part of its “Look South” mission to expand the alliance, the BJP central leadership is actively exploring revival of tie-up with the TDP ahead of the general elections.
In collaboration with the TDP, the saffron party has conducted an internal survey in Andhra Pradesh to gauge public mood and assess the merits of forging alliance.
The survey revealed that the TDP has a popularity rating of 16 to18 percent while BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has 8 percent support.
The BJP central leadership feels that a pre-poll alliance with TDP would benefit both the parties.
The calculations of the party strategists are based on the assumption that the Telangana state would not become a reality before the 2014 general elections.
However, Kishan Reddy never loses an opportunity to assert that his party was not interested in any kind of electoral arrangement with the TDP.
This, it is believed, has angered the party bosses in Delhi who are looking for new allies in the South to shore up the numbers for the NDA to form the government at the Centre after the 2014 elections.
But, Kishan Reddy has become an obstacle in the way of reviving the alliance with TDP.
According to him, any alliance with TDP will amount to scoring a "self-goal". He had recently submitted a report to the central leadership giving the reasons for going it alone in the state.
On his part, the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is said to be veering towards pre-poll tie-up with the BJP, rather than a post-poll alliance, as Modi was rapidly gaining public support across the country.
Of late, he has been dropping enough hints about his possible return to the NDA as an ally of BJP.
Naidu’s shift in political stance is believed to be based on surveys suggesting a massive erosion of Congress’ support base across the country and the rise of BJP under Modi’s charismatic leadership.
Political observers say that the TDP supremo is keen on “piggybacking” on BJP in the next elections in view of the growing popularity of Modi.
