The decision of the Telugu Desam Party to go it alone in Telangana in the ensuing Assembly elections, due towards the year-end, has raised many an eyebrow.
TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu is said to have asserted in an informal chat in New Delhi recently that his party is against entering into alliances in Telangana and had decided to put up candidates in a major chunk of constituencies where it has presence. This has naturally led to speculation among the major political parties about the impact of the decision on their prospects in the ensuing elections.
Their worry apparently is not about the Telangana TDP winning any seats, but more about the dent it would cause in their respective vote banks. The TDP, according to data available with the Election Commission of India, has secured 3.51 per cent of votes in the 2018 Assembly elections. Its vote percentage in the little over dozen constituencies it contested in alliance with the Congress was 30.25 per cent and it came at a time when there was a BRS (then TRS) wave in the State that helped the TRS secure 88 of the 119 Assembly seats.
Though the TDP’s vote share appears small, it can still have a bearing on the prospects of major contenders as the election this time around involves high stakes between the ruling BRS, the Congress and the BJP. Moreover, the decision comes after the success of its meeting in Khammam in last December through which Mr. Chandrababu Naidu tried to instil new vigour in the party leadership and the cadre.
In spite of the reverses it suffered in elections it contested since the formation of Telangana, the TDP still has some dedicated voters in the united Khammam district and in some constituencies under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits. It is in this background, political parties are said to be engaged in calculating the impact of the TDP’s presence in the electoral fray on their prospects.
Some feel that the BRS is unlikely to suffer any impact as almost all the TDP leaders have crossed over to the ruling party in the past few years while others feel that the presence of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy who was a vociferous voice of the party before switching loyalties to the Congress would ensure that a major chunk of the dedicated vote would go the Congress way. Going by the political heat generated in the State much ahead of the announcement of the election schedule, the speculation is likely to continue for some more time.
