Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu and actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan of the JanaSena Party (JSP) held a closed-door meeting Sunday, triggering a fresh round of speculation in political circles about the growing bonhomie, and a probable alliance in the 2024 assembly polls.
This is the second such meeting between the two leaders in the last few months to express “solidarity” with each other in their fight against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s alleged autocratic actions. The JSP has been in an alliance with the BJP since early 2020.
Kalyan and Naidu met at the latter’s residence in Hyderabad Sunday. According to the parties, Kalyan had gone to extend his support to unitedly fight against the government order banning public meetings and gatherings on roads, issued last week. The order had cited last month’s incident where 8 people reportedly died at Naidu’s public meeting in Nellore district.
The first target of the government order, albeit indirectly, was Naidu when the police restricted meetings in his constituency Kuppam, which led to a clash between TDP leaders and the police.
Last week, Naidu had written to the state director general of police, accusing the force of “autocratic” behaviour and claiming that he had sought permission to tour the Kuppam constituency but it was rejected on grounds of the government order.
After the meeting, Naidu and Kalyan told newspersons that there was no discussion on poll alliances as such but they discussed on how to forge a united platform, ‘Prajaswamya Parirakshana Vedika’, to protect the democracy of the state and “together” fight against the “undemocratic” policies of the ruling YSRCP.
“There was no concrete discussion on any poll alliance, there is still time for that. Pawan Kalyan is very inclined to work with our party as far as certain issues are concerned and the same was told to our chief previously also. Both leaders are on the same wavelength and at the grassroot level party cadre is already working together,” a senior TDP leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, adding: “As of now, the coming together is to fight together, issue based, against the Jagan government.”
The BJP has never been in favour of the brewing TDP-JSP alliance and party leaders have hinted about it on multiple occasions. The TDP, which was part of the National Democratic Alliance, had come out of it before the 2019 assembly polls over Andhra not being granted special category status.
A few weeks after Kalyan-Naidu’s first meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Kalyan during his tour to Visakhapatnam in November last year. Following the closed-door meeting, Kalyan just said the discussion was on the political situation in the state, without delving much into the matter.
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‘Hinting at alliance’
Political analyst Nageshwar Rao said both parties are trying to send a message to the people and their cadre, through these meetings, that they will go for an alliance.
Sunday’s meeting between the leaders lasted for over two hours, according to sources.
“Expressing solidarity will not take 2 hours, that is just 5 minutes of work. It is obvious that they have discussed politics. What I understand from this meeting is that both the parties have agreed for an alliance. Unless there are some unavoidable circumstances, the parties will go together…Two political leaders just don’t hold meetings without any reason or discussing any concrete politics,” Rao said.
“The TDP and the JSP were together in 2014, they went separate during 2019 polls. However, if they want to join hands again in 2024, they need to give proper reasons to the people. That is why they want to create a perception in the minds of people that they are not joining hands for selfish reasons, but to put up a united fight against Jagan’s rule (which they call ‘autocratic’) and this will eventually become an alliance,” he added.
These meetings are also a message to the party cadre that the parties will work together and bring a synergy between the leaders, claimed Rao.
Naidu’s stand on an alliance has never been a definite no. It has always been based on the political situation at the time of polls. The TDP chief, in the past, had also hinted to his party leaders that some sacrifices have to be made for the party to come to power, indirectly pointing out the need to go for seat sharing with other parties.
“Our CM Jagan has to understand that he is creating a platform (through his autocratic rule) for opposition parties to come together. He should not be surprised if that comes true,” TDP leader Pattabi Ram said.
Kalyan and Naidu had first met in October last year, after Kalyan was confined to a hotel room in Visakhapatnam by the police and prohibited from conducting a public grievances programme. The police had then said that they had acted on complaints that the ruling party leaders and ministers were “attacked” by JSP workers.
Naidu had met Kalyan then and expressed solidarity.
“It is clear to the ground-level workers that the two parties are working together. In fact, we were surprised to find JanaSena workers joining our party rally in Nandigama recently, with their flags, declaring support for us,” another TDP leader said.
The power of ‘Kamma-Kapu’ communities
Naidu-Kalyan’s alliance, if it goes through, will be a powerful ‘Kamma-Kapu’ alliance. Naidu hails from the socially-influential Kamma community and the group rallies behind him. However, the same cannot be said for Kalyan, who is a Kapu leader. The Kapu community has always split when it comes to supporting a single party.
The Kapu community, which includes Balijas, Telagas etc., forms about 24 per cent of Andhra’s population according to the last census, which is why it is a key votebank for every party, including the ruling YSRCP. Kapus have been demanding that they be included in the Backward Class community in the state.
Although Kapus have largely been supporters of the Congress, there has been consolidation of their votes, at least since 2009 when Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi launched his political party. Kalyan is the younger brother of Chiranjeevi.
Kalyan, however, has had an unsuccessful journey so far. He lost in both the constituencies he contested in 2019.
While Naidu can garner a share of the Kapu votes by roping in Kalyan, for the latter an alliance with a relatively stronger party like the TDP might reap some minimal benefits.
Now the question is, will the BJP be on board with this TDP-JSP alliance, and will it be a TDP-BJP-JSP alliance or just a TDP-JSP alliance in 2024.
“We do not have any major objections to work with the BJP but that party has to prove themselves to the Andhra people. They’re still not taking a stern stand on issues in the state,” a TDP leader said.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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