More trouble for Jagan with TDP – BJP alliance

After days of suspense and uncertainty, it has finally been announced that the BJP is once again going to join forces with the Telugu Desam Party and Janasena in Andhra Pradesh for the upcoming elections. This significant development appears to be a harbinger for the repeat of the 2014 political scene in the state when all three parties went together to the polls and secured a landslide victory against Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP. The only difference this time is that the YSRCP is currently the ruling party unlike 2014 when it was just a new player in AP politics.

In the last five years, YS Jagan tried his best to be in the good books of the BJP high command. He never criticized the Modi government during this tenure and he didn’t raise any objection even when the central government turned a blind eye to various important aspects of our state. He maintained a stoic silence on special status, railway zone, Polavaram project and other crucial issues that have been grappling the state. This approach from Jagan and the strength of 22 MPs for his party in Loksabha made the BJP overlook his cases as they found no reason to see him behind bars in these five years.

Jagan knows very well that once he is out of power, all the legal cases pending against him will be processed very quickly and this will pose a big trouble to him both politically and personally. The only way he could survive without power is by hoping that the BJP will be at loggerheads with Chandra Babu Naidu. But, that hope is now destroyed because the TDP made desperate attempts and sealed the alliance with the BJP ahead of the upcoming elections. Jagan also tried to please the BJP, but he received a cold shoulder in Delhi.

Jagan is already facing a lot of anti-incumbency from the people of Andhra Pradesh. It looks very unlikely that he will retain power for the second term. With the BJP back in the same boat with the TDP and Janasena, Jagan will face further troubles because Modi’s government is most likely to secure the third term and a victory for the TDP alliance is very much on the cards in the state.

If the TDP alliance comes back to power, Jagan will find it very difficult to face the consequences. Naidu and Pawan Kalyan will put a lot of pressure on Modi to ensure that Jagan will be back behind bars for any of the criminal cases filed against him ten years ago.