YSR Congress Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had repeatedly declined offers from the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the National Democratic Alliance between 2019 and 2024, seems to have changed his mind now.
When Jagan was in power in Andhra Pradesh and the YSRCP had a large number of MPs — 22 Lok Sabha members and 11 Rajya Sabha members — both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly invited his party to join the NDA.
They even offered Union Cabinet berths to the YSRCP, but Jagan did not accept the offer, fearing that any alliance with the BJP would antagonise minorities, who had voted in favour of his party in 2019.
All he did was maintain cordial relations with the Centre in the interest of the state and also, allegedly, his personal interests in dealing with the CBI and ED cases.
The BJP, too, did not insist too much on bringing the YSRCP on board, as it already had a large number of MPs in the Lok Sabha, and the YSRCP was anyway supporting most decisions of the NDA.
But Jagan appears to have realised that his decision not to ally with the BJP cost him dearly in the 2024 elections.
The TDP grabbed the opportunity and, with the help of the Jana Sena Party, managed to get into the good books of Modi and Shah. Eventually, the TDP, BJP and Jana Sena fought the elections together and won a massive mandate in 2024.
In the last two years, Jagan is learnt to have changed his mind and decided that an alliance with the BJP would be inevitable if he wants to return to power in 2029.
That is why he has continued to maintain cordial relations with the BJP national leadership, despite the saffron party being part of the coalition government in Andhra Pradesh.
However, the fear of losing minority votes if the YSRCP allies with the BJP continues to bother Jagan.
According to sources, Jagan recently commissioned an independent survey to gauge public opinion in the state and assess whether minorities would turn against the YSRCP if it joins hands with the BJP in the next elections.
To his pleasant surprise, Jagan reportedly received a positive response, with the survey indicating that minorities in Andhra Pradesh are not aggressively opposed to the BJP and that there may be little impact on the YSRCP’s vote bank in the event of an alliance with the saffron party, sources said.
But the question now is whether the BJP will dump the TDP and bring the YSRCP into its fold in the next elections.
“Anything can happen in politics over the next three years. The BJP will weigh its options depending on the political situation prevailing then. If it senses strong anti-incumbency against the Chandrababu Naidu government, it may not hesitate to join hands with the YSRCP,” sources said.
