This refers to the editorial, “Southern discomfort” (March 9). Ahead of the 2019 lok Sabha poll, parties and politicians are prone to re-position themselves. So, we can expect political mobility to gather steam further in the coming weeks and months. But public recriminations between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are due to a different reasons. Ties between the TDP and the BJP have unfortunately soured after the Union Government rejected its demand to give Andhra Pradesh a special category status after its bifurcation in 2014. While the BJP is on a winning spree in the country and has already formed Governments in 20 States, the Amit Shah-led BJP has no other alliance in southern States. The party may think it is simple to carry on the winning spree in Andhra Pradesh as well, but it all comes down to numbers in the lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. While the saffron party can let go off the TDP in the lok Sabha — it has a clear majority in the lower House — but it will suffer a blow in Rajya Sabha. It cannot afford to break alliance with the TDP as numbers in Rajya Sabha of the BJP-led NDA will dip down.
Due to the break-up of the alliance, which will affect it in the March 23 elections to the Rajya Sabha, it will still fall short of the majority mark of 123 seats. But, with BJP’s high hopes, the NDA is expecting to win a majority in Rajya Sabha by 2020. With the exit of TDP though, things will become further difficult for the BJP to gain numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Of course, nothing is impossible in politics, but it is unlikely that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu will make a clean break with the BJP — and then allow the waiting Jaganmohan Reddy to walk into the NDA camp.