From bonhomie to political adversaries, YS Jagan tacitly targets BJP, shooting off Naidu’s shoulders

BAPATLA: After political parties in Andhra Pradesh spent the last one year in a 'grey area' speculating over electoral alliances, the nitty-gritties finally became 'black and white' this week just ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the State. The ruling YSRCP is now going to face a tripartite opposition alliance of the TDP-JSP-BJP combine for the upcoming polls apart from the Congress which is trying to reestablish its lost legacy in the State.

With this brewing political setup, stakeholders were keenly inquisitive about Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's 'Siddham' meeting in Bapatla district on Sunday to figure out his reaction after the BJP decided to join hands with his political adversaries.

For the last four-and-a-half years, YS Jagan and the BJP high command enjoyed a perfect camaraderie, much to the envy of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu, in fact, had severed the bond with the BJP before the 2019 general elections, only to realise that it was a disastrous move.

The relationship between YS Jagan and the BJP was such that in one of the public meetings in Visakhapatnam, Jagan openly told Prime Minister Modi, “Our relationship with the Central Government, especially you, is above parties and politics. Except our State’s interests, we have no other agenda and we will never have one.”

This statement was met with loud cheers from the huge gathering.

While the best interests of the State were served to an extent due to the relationship, Chandrababu Naidu, on the other hand, with the aid of BJP's partner in the State Jana Sena Party, clawed his way back into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold once again ahead of the polls this year.

When YS Jagan addressed his Siddham meeting on Sunday, he ensured that his target only remained his political bête noire Chandrababu Naidu. The YSRCP president was careful not to name the BJP or Modi during his entire speech which lasted for close to an hour.

"Chandrababu Naidu is a zero, and if he forms an alliance with parties, the end result will also be a big zero," Jagan said hinting at his displeasure over the BJP's decision to be part of the alliance with the TDP.

In fact he also pulled out a manifesto of the trio which contested the 2014 elections together and pointed out several unfulfilled promises during 2014-19 rule of Naidu and compared it to the benefits delivered during his current regime from 2019.

With the next couple of months panning out to be a blockbuster political campaign for the elections in the State, it would be interesting to see if YS Jagan trains his guns against the alliance of Naidu-Pawan-Modi and if the blow-hot-blow-cold relationship between YS Jagan and the BJP ends up in political fireworks.