The Jana Sena refuted reports that said the party had parted ways with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Published Oct 05, 2023 | 4:15 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 05, 2023 | 4:17 PM
Pawan Kalyan. (JanasenaParty/ X)
A day after Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan made an ambivalent statement on his future with the BJP, his party made a clarification on Thursday, 5 October, saying that the actor-politician would continue with the NDA. It added that a section of the media wrongly interpreted his statement.
While addressing a public meeting at Pedana near Machilipatnam on Wednesday, Kalyan said that he decided to strike an alliance with the TDP though he was part of the NDA. He said the alliance became necessary since Andhra Pradesh needed the experience of the TDP and the fighting spirit of the Jana Sena to save the state from the YSRCP.
The Jana Sena had campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance without contesting in the 2014 elections which helped TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu come to power in the re-organised state of Andhra Pradesh. The honeymoon between the TDP and BJP did not continue for more than three years.
YSRCP leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was then the Opposition leader in the AP Assembly, accused Naidu of becoming subservient to the BJP, unmindful of the fact that he would have to force the NDA to bestow special category status to the state.
As Jagan began getting traction with the people, Naidu came out of the NDA — which was then in power in the Centre — on 8 March, and later severed ties with the NDA on 16 March, 2018.
He also began targeting the Narendra Modi dispensation for the injustice done to the state, particularly by denying special category status to AP which was promised in Parliament by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the time of the division of the state.
But by then, the damage had already been done. The YSRCP leaders began heckling him for taking a U-turn. They also sought a justification for how the special package which was attractive and alluring to Naidu instead of special category status till 2018 suddenly became an empty shell.
But in 2019, Kalyan contested the Assembly elections without entering into any poll pact with either the BJP or the TDP and suffered a political disaster when he lost the two seats he contested and his party ended up with only one seat in the Assembly. The parties that aligned with him like the BSP, CPI, and the CPI(M), did not have much presence in the state.
Kalyan came back to the NDA fold in January 2020, after breaking away from it in 2018. He declared that he would work with the saffron party to protect the state’s interests. His friendship with Naidu continued.
A few days after Naidu was arrested and put in Rajamahendravaram Central Prison in the multi-crore skill development scam on 9 September, Kalyan met him and announced an alliance with the TDP. He hoped that the BJP would also play along and that he would explain the reasons for striking the alliance to the BJP’s top brass.
At Padana, his ambiguous statement that suggested that he had stepped out of NDA caused a lot of confusion in the political circles. His statement was interpreted that he had left the NDA to work with TDP against the YSRCP in the state.
Kalyan’s aides said he meant though he was with the NDA he had announced an alliance with the TDP because he wanted to free the state from the YSRCP rule.
He had said that if Jana Sena’s fighting spirit and TDP’s experience came together, Jagan would have to face defeat in the elections. He even hoped that the BJP would play along with the Jana Sena and be part of the alliance to end Jagan’s rule.
