Hyderabad:
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party leader Pawan Kalyan kick-started their campaign for next year’s Andhra Pradesh election by sharing the stage at a public meeting in Vizianagaram on Wednesday evening. Drone videos of the event showed tens of thousands of supporters crowded into the venue, emphasising the sway the alliance has over voters in the state.
This was thee first joint address by Mr Naidu and Mr Kalyan since the alliance was announced in September. “This is about the future of Andhra Pradesh,” the latter said then, flanked by Mr Naidu’s son, Nara Lokesh, and brother-in-law, Nandamuri Balakrishna.
All four – Mr Naidu and his relatives, and Mr Kalyan – were together this evening, in an important show of strength. The event itself had its own significance; it was the concluding ceremony of a 3,132 km padayatra, or foot march, by Mr Lokesh. The march has been seen as helping the 40-year-old step out from his father’s shadow and establish himself as a mass leader in his own right.
Five special trains and several buses ferried large numbers of supporters to the meeting that wore a festive atmosphere, and where large cut-outs of TDP founder, the late NT Rama Rao, and Chandrababu Naidu, as also those of Mr Nara Lokesh, Mr Kalyan, and Mr Balakrishna, were put up.
This was also Mr Naidu’s first public outing after spending nearly two months in Rajahmundry Central Jail in connection with the alleged Rs 371 crore Skill Development Corporation scam case.
Significantly, Mr Naidu had also been given the all-clear to participate in political activities, but that was too late for his party to contest the election in neighbouring Telangana, where the Bharat Rashtra Samithi of ex-Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was beaten by the Congress.
Last month the former Pradesh Chief Minister was released first on medical bail and then on regular bail. It was while he was in jail that Pawan Kalyan met him, and declared his Jana Sena would ally with the TDP for this election. He also backed Mr Naidu in his fight against the corruption charges.
Last week Mr Naidu ramped up his attacks on the YSR Congress Party in power in Andhra, declaring next year’s state election a “battle” between the people of the state and the ruling party.
He mocked Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for being afraid of losing power.
In 2019 the YSRCP swept Andhra Pradesh, winning 151 of 175 seats. The TDP won just 23 – down from the 102 it claimed five years earlier. The Jana Sena was the best of the rest – with one seat – and the BJP and the Congress got zero, underlining the strength of regional parties in South India.
The BJP, meanwhile, has tied up with Mr Kalyan’s party for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, but has remained cold to Mr Naidu’s overtures, complicating the Jana Sena-TDP relationship.