The Hindu : Friends and foes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 09, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Friends and foes

The BJP now views the Telugu Desam as a stumbling block to its growth in Andhra Pradesh, writes Dasu Kesava Rao.

THE BJP finds itself in a "Catch 22" situation in Andhra Pradesh. Its ally, the Telugu Desam, served as a springboard for the party to register significant electoral gains in the 1999 Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. But now, with differences surfacing over seat sharing in the panchayat elections, the BJP views the Telugu Desam as a stumbling block.

The 1999 tie-up helped the BJP win 12 Assembly and seven Lok Sabha seats, its richest harvest ever. The Telugu Desam also retained power with a near two-thirds majority routing a much-fancied Congress.

But in private both parties now say, "The honeymoon is over. And there is domestic discord". There is little love lost at the level of the cadre and middle level leadership on both sides.

"Our people are simmering at the big brotherly attitude of the TDP leaders," BJP workers say. But there's little they can do as the BJP central leadership wants the ties to continue as it still feels that Chandrababu Naidu is a "dependable" ally.

"For a party of the TDP's strength, he does not throw tantrums or cause embarrassment to us," admitted a senior BJP leader.

Nevertheless, the BJP has told its cadres that they need not bear the TDP's cross and should unhesitatingly raise issues of public concern. The BJP, in fact, has given a bandh call on February 11 demanding a ban on the Darsgah Jehad-o-Shahadat under POTA and firm action against `jehadi killings'.

For long identified as a party of traders, upper castes and urbanites, the BJP is now making steady inroads into rural areas and among the Dalits. It is also targeting sheep-breeders, fishermen and even the minority women.

In the recent membership drive (up from 17 lakh to 24 lakh in three years), it is claimed, Dalits accounted for nearly 50 per cent of its members at the panchayat level.

Again, "out of every 10 women members enrolled,three are Muslims", the party claims.

It went to the people on `positive programmes' focussing on issues such as use of the Godavari waters (`over 700 tmc feet goes waste into the sea'), Sasya Syamala Yatra (campaign to harness river waters) and the slogan "Dunnagaligevaanike Bhoomi" (land to the man who can till).

These programmes drew good response from the people affected by successive droughts, water and power shortage.

While Telangana and Hyderabad are its traditional strongholds, the BJP has extended its presence in the coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari and Krishna, as also in some parts of Anantapur and Chittoor in Rayalaseema.

The modest gains notwithstanding, the BJP has miles to go.

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