Though TDP and Jana Sena aligned with BJP and had seat sharing in Andhra Pradesh, till now no prominent leader of BJP participated in the poll campaign. BJP’s star campaigners Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah seem to be avoiding campaigning in the state.
However, during the last week of the campaign PM Modi is visiting for two days. Naturally when a most popular leader in the country is coming for a poll campaign both TDP and Jana Sena should be happy expecting that would give momentum to their campaign. However, they seem to be worried as they are not certain how Modi will address certain key issues that are haunting the people of the state.
When PM Modi addressed the first public rally soon after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule was in Chilakaluripet on March 17th, both TDP and Jana Sena, besides BJP leaders, expected that he would present a road map for the development of the state.
They also expected he would give categorical assurance on pending issues like Polavaram project, Visakha Railway Zone, capital city Amaravati, privatization of Visakha Steel and Kadapa steel. But, surprisingly Modi didn’t mention any one of such issues.
But, this time coming to the state for campaign, in an interview given to Eenadu, he promised that completion of Polavaram will be his responsibility. However, TDP and Jana Sena leaders are worrying about how Modi will respond to two contentious issues presently dominating the poll campaign.
Both these parties are categorically stating that they will continue 4 per cent reservations for Muslims under OBC category, while BJP stating day in and out that they are completely opposed to religion-based reservations.
In the same way, these two parties opposed YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s Land Titling Act and stated that they would cancel this legislation after coming to power. But, CM Jagan stated that they formulated this act as per the guidelines of the NITI Aayog and directions of the central government. State BJP is silent on this Act.
As both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan will also participate in Modi’s public meetings, if the Prime Minister mentions these two issues that would create embarrassment to them and also provide an effective ammunition to CM Jagan.