The Hindu : TDP-BJP alliance runs into trouble

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 29, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP-BJP alliance runs into trouble

By Y. Mallikarjun

HYDERABAD, MARCH 28. The TDP-BJP alliance in Andhra Pradesh has run into trouble with the seat-sharing between the two parties triggering protests and resignations. The electoral fortunes of some candidates are likely to be affected with cadre from both sides threatening to work at cross-purposes.

The TDP is facing problems in at least 10 constituencies over seat sharing. It suffered a major setback in Chittoor, native district of the TDP supremo, N. Chandrababu Naidu, when its former MLA, Lakshmidevamma, quit the party on Saturday, protesting against the allotment of the Tamballapalle seat to the BJP and announced her resolve to contest as an Independent.

Another former MLA, Narayan Rao Patel, also quit the party upset that the Mudhole seat was given to the BJP in Adilabad district.

The former TDP MLA, Vadde Veerabhadra Rao, today declared his resolve to contest as an Independent after he failed to get the party's nomination for the Kadiam seat as it was allotted to the BJP.

Several TDP functionaries have resigned in Mahbubnagar district for not retaining the Makthal and Kalwakurthy seats. Similarly, the cadre were enraged with the allotment of the Proddatur, Kamareddy and Indurthi seats to the BJP. The senior Congress leader, M.V. Mysoora Reddy, who joined the TDP recently amid fanfare and was fielded for the Cuddapah Lok Sabha seat, has threatened not to take the "B" form over the allotment of the Prodattur seat to the BJP. The allotment of the Pithapuram and Kadiam seats in East Godavari was also giving a headache to the ruling party.

The State BJP leadership which was stunned at the strong backlash, particularly over the swapping of the Malakpet and Himayatnagar Assembly seats in the city and the exchange of the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat for Tirupathi (SC), should take the blame for the widespread resentment among the rank and file for having raised the hopes of its cadre before reaching the seat-sharing accord with the TDP.

For days together, the BJP leadership went to town declaring that its strength had gone up all over the State and that it would be seeking more than the 24 Assembly and eight Lok Sabha seats the party had contested in the last elections. It was repeated ad nauseam that the party would be seeking a minimum of one seat in each of the 23 districts and some more constituencies where it was perceived to be strong.

However, the high hopes created among the cadre were dashed when the much-publicised negotiations by BJP general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, with Mr. Naidu, yielded only three additional Assembly seats and an extra Lok Sabha constituency in the seat sharing.

Though Mr. Mahajan was "briefed" by the State BJP leadership to seek at least 42 Assembly seats 12 Lok Sabha for the BJP to have "respectability" since the fledgling TRS was given 42 Assembly and 6 Lok Sabha seats by the Congress, the party failed to get even a single Assembly seat in the districts of Ranga Reddy, Khammam, West Godavari, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Prakasam.

The resentment among the cadre was so strong that apart from en masse resignations, the two parties also had to witness the unseemly spectacle of their activists threatening to immolate themselves.

A BJP worker from the Malakpet Assembly Constituency had doused himself with kerosene in a bid to immolate himself in front of the residence of the Union Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya.

Similarly, in Kamareddy two Telugu Yuvatha activists made a vain bid to immolate themselves protesting against the allotment of the Kamareddy seat to the BJP.

Ignoring appeals for restraint, angry TDP workers continued their protest and even took out a mock funeral procession of Syed Yousuf Ali, a former MLA.

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