Reacting on a statement made by TDP chief and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu, BJP national General Secretary and Andhra Pradesh incharge Sunil V Deodhar dismissed any possibility of reforging of an alliance between the BJP and TDP and said “The doors have been closed forever for the TDP. There is no question of forging any alliance with it at any cost. The chapter is closed.”
“Naidu might be repenting for snapping ties with the BJP, but it will not change our decision,” Sunil V Deodhar added.
Earlier last week TDP supremo, Chandrababu Naidu, during a party meeting in Visakhapatnam had admitted that pulling out of the NDA had adversely affected the Andhra Pradesh based party.
He said, “We severed ties with the BJP and withdrew our ministers from the union cabinet to press our demands on Amaravati, Polavaram and Special status.” Naidu also opined that the move backfired and the party suffered a huge setback due to the decision to part ways with the BJP.
Naidu also regretted affiliating with the Congress and said, “I had taken the decision to share seats with Congress in Telangana. We fared miserably. Halfway through I realised that it was a grave mistake, but it was too late.”
Already struggling to save political capital, Chandrababu led TDP has been continually on the back foot after an embarrassing defeat in both state and general assembly elections.
Facing stiff anti-incumbency in the state Naidu lost out massively to Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP in both critical polls. Chandrababu led TDP has now been reduced to just 23 seats out of the total 175 Assembly constituencies in the state, compared to more than 100 seats in the last assembly elections.
Even in the Lok Sabha Elections TDP lost huge political ground to the YSRCP, TDP is now reduced to just 3 Parliamentary Constituencies in the state out of the total 25 in the state. TDP as a part of the NDA in the 2014 general elections had emerged victorious on 15 seats.
Rattled by new political realities setting in, Chandrababu Naidu had gone into a state of meltdown. Claiming widespread malfunctioning of EVM’s throughout Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu had sought the Election Commission to conduct repolling on around 150 polling booths. He also accused the Election commission of being biased. However Election Commission had successfully debunked all the claims made by N Chandrababu Naidu; and now these comments accepting the mega political blunder of quitting the NDA, Naidu is surely further poised to lose his grip on internal workings of the regional party.
In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Naidu had emerged as one of the most ardent supporters for the Mahagathbandhan against the BJP after he walked out of the NDA.
Holding meetings with regional parties and leaders made him appear as one of the most ardent supporters of an anti-BJP alliance. Through the course of his ultra-ambitious campaign to emerge at the forefront of an anti-BJP alliance, he ended up damaging his relationship with the BJP irreparably.
For the BJP however, these comments by a senior party leader dismissing the possibility of any realignment is surely also a firm signal to other alliance partners who might play on similar lines as N Chandrababu Naidu.