Hitherto, Bharatiya Janata Party had been little presence in Andhra Pradesh. Except in a few pockets, the party did not have enough strength to win the elections on its own, let alone grabbing power in the state.
Though it had four MLAs in the last assembly, everybody knows it was because of its alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, which, too, got enough benefit due to the alliance. In the 2019 elections, the BJP got less than one per cent of vote share, lesser than NOTA.
Yet, the BJP is going all out to emerge as a potential alternative to the ruling YSR Congress party now, taking advantage of the weak position of the TDP. The party, in association with the Jana Sena, has now started playing the Hindutva card effectively to consolidate the Hindu vote bank.
Interestingly, both Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy appear to have fallen in the trap of BJP on Hindutva issue, say analysts.
After the recent attacks on Hindu temples and desecration of Hindu gods’ idols, particularly the Ramatirtham incident, the BJP has created such a situation that every political party was forced to talk about the Hindutva and how these incidents have hurt the sentiments of Hindus.
Chandrababu Naidu, who never espoused the cause of Hindus openly even when he had an alliance with the BJP, has now been forced to go all out in support of Hindutva. In the past, he appeared to be a man of secular ideas – he used to visit Churches and pray there and also wear Muslim cap during the Muslim congregations.
But Naidu has now turned an out and out Hindutva man. He went to the extent of criticising Christianity and attacking Jagan Mohan Reddy government for perpetrating attacks on temples and encouraging conversions. He even questioned the payment of honorarium to pastors.
On the other hand, Jagan, too, has been forced to transform himself into a typical and traditional Hindu, setting aside his strong faith in Christianity. He has been wearing traditional Hindu attire, sporting tilakam and worshipping Hindu gods.
He has also started participating in Hindu rituals like Gopuja (cow worship) and other activities, which he never used to do in the past. He has been making every effort to appease the Hindus.
The credit for this sudden change in Naidu and Jagan should go to the BJP. It successfully changed their mindsets and tuned them towards Hindutva. In the coming days, the BJP is expected to carry forward this agenda more aggressively, say analysts.