Hyderabad: With the dust now settled, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Andhra Pradesh (AP), which is critical of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, is likely to stick to the NDA without any hiccups for five years. Senior leaders from Andhra said that the party needs a lot of support in terms of building the state’s new capital Amaravati, which was derailed by the previous YSRCP government.
“We have already started work with JCBs clearing debris in Amaravati. The work has to be restarted soon if we have to make sure Amaravati stays as the capital. Unlike all of the speculation that is going around, the TDP is not looking to leave the NDA because we need their support for other major projects like the Polavaram irrigation project as well,” said a senior TDP leader who did not want to be quoted.
After the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress came to power in 2019, it passed a bill in the state Assembly to decentralise the capital between Amaravati, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam. However, this was halted by the Andhra high court, after which the YSRCP government was planning to shift the capital to Visakhapatnam.
Political observers believe that ex-chief minister Jagan did not want to continue with Amaravati as capital as it would be seen as a legacy of TDP supremo and N Chandrababu Naidu, who will be sworn in as chief minister on Wednesday, June 12. It is to be seen how Naidu tries to fastrack work in Amaravati, for which he had grand plans when he was the chief minister earlier between 2014-19. His government then had acquired 33,000 acres of land (mainly from farmers) for the project.
“With the disruption Jagan has caused, we are also not going to leave the NDA because we want a stable government. Also, unlike what has been reported, we never asked for the Lok Sabha Speaker position given that we in fact do not have anyone senior to fill that place. Our main focus now will be to finish all the work that was stopped after we lost in 2019,” said the TDP leader.
As far as power sharing with the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) is also concerned, the TDP leader stated that for as long as Naidu is at the helm it will not be an issue. The TDP is expected to give the JSP three or four cabinet ministries. Kalyan has so far reportedly not sought any positions, so it is to be seen how the power equations carry out in the coming days.
In the just concluded Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, the TDP, JSP and BJP contested it together from the NDA block, against the YSRCP. The TDP, JSP and BJP won a staggering 135, 21 and 8 seats, while the YSRCP could win just 11. This was in complete contrast to 2019, when the YSRCP won 151 out of the state’s 175 seats. However, at that time Naidu had exited the NDA and both he and Kalyan contested separately.
