Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan on Thursday, September 14 announced that his party will contest the upcoming Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in 2024 in an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Pawan Kalyan made the announcement after visiting TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu at the Rajahmundry Central Prison, where he had been lodged in judicial custody since September 11 in connection with the alleged skill development corporation scam case. Pawan Kalyan’s JSP is currently in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, but the actor-politician has hinted on many occasions that he would like a JSP-TDP-BJP alliance to contest in 2024 against the ruling YSR Congress Party. TDP had quit the NDA in 2018, and the BJP has not confirmed yet if Naidu's party will be allowed to rejoin the alliance.
Pawan Kalyan met Naidu at the Rajahmundry Central Jail along with Naidu’s son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh, and Naidu's brother-in-law and TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna. Addressing the media, Pawan Kalyan said, “This meeting [between me and Naidu] is very important for Andhra Pradesh… I’ve been thinking all these days about whether TDP and Jana Sena should work together. I am currently in NDA. If the state must get rid of YSRCP’s anarchic rule in 2024, I want TDP, Jana Sena and BJP to work together.”
Condemning Naidu’s arrest, Pawan Kalyan said that the situation for such an alliance was created by YSRCP and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. He said he had repeatedly suggested the three-party alliance to the Union government and central BJP leadership, and was unsure what decision they would take.”I believe they will take a positive decision,” he said.
“For the past four and half years we have been witnessing the anarchic rule in Andhra Pradesh. As part of that, former CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been framed illegally and remanded... I came here to express my solidarity,” Pawan Kalyan said.
Announcing that the TDP and JSP are joining hands to put an end to the alleged misrule of CM Jagan, Pawan Kalyan said, “I have taken a decision today. Jana Sena Party and TDP will contest the elections together. This is not about the future of us two individuals but this is about the future of Andhra Pradesh.”
Over the past few months, the TDP and JSP had shown signs of rekindling their past alliance. Pawan Kalyan had in fact surprised Naidu in 2018 when he openly censured the then TDP government at a public meeting. The TDP, JSP and BJP ended their alliance, and contested the 2019 state and general elections individually. It ended disastrously, as Naidu’s party won only 23 out of 175 Assembly seats, and the JSP won just one. The ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) stormed to power with 151 seats.
TDP leaders whom TNM spoke to said that the BJP at this point is nowhere in the picture when it comes to an alliance. “The BJP in the 2019 Assembly elections had less than one per cent of the vote share, which is of no use to us. They are in no position to win any seat, and the only reason we want to go with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is for the Union government’s support through the government machinery. It’s not like we want to fight the BJP either, but as far as an alliance with them is concerned, it is a mess,” a senior TDP leader told TNM.
The TDP had walked out of the NDA in 2018, and party chief Naidu had said that the Union government’s refusal to grant the Special Category Status to Andhra was the main reason. The TDP had allied with the Congress for the 2018 Telangana Assembly polls and the coalition had lost against the K Chandrashekar Rao's Telanagana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS).
After the bitter exit from NDA, Naidu had aggressively taken on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for a while. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Naidu had compared Modi to the villain of the Baahubali films Bhallala Deva, and had also repeatedly invoked the 2002 Gujarat communal riots while urging minorities not to vote for the BJP. Naidu had also called PM Modi a "terrorist" during his election campaign.
But for months now, TDP’s approach towards the BJP seems to have softened and the party has supported the NDA on several issues – from the new Parliament building inauguration to the no-trust motion against PM Modi. It remains unclear whether the BJP will allow TDP to rejoin the NDA. Naidu had even met BJP national president J P Nadda earlier in June, setting off speculation that the TDP was going to rejoin the NDA soon. However, there have been developments in this regard since then.