Bharatiya Janata Party, which had forged an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in 2014 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, had won four assembly seats.
Two of them had even become the ministers in Chandrababu Naidu cabinet.
However, after the TDP snapped ties with the BJP in 2018, the saffron party had go it alone in 2019 elections and had to face humiliating defeat, apparently due to people’s anger towards the party for not granting the special category status to AP.
The BJP could not win even a single assembly seat and Lok Sabha seat and could not get even one per cent of votes – much less than that of votes polled under NOTA.
Yet, the BJP is most likely to make an entry into the Andhra Pradesh assembly shortly with the joining of an elected MLA.
He is none other than Rapaka Varaprasad, the lone legislator elected from Razole in East Godavari district on behalf of Jana Sena Party floated by actor Pawan Kalyan.
According to sources, the BJP leadership had approached Rapaka and convinced him to join the BJP which would safeguard all his interests. He reportedly agreed to the request.
“It is only a matter of time Rapaka takes a plunge into the BJP,” sources said.
If Rapaka joins the BJP, the Jana Sena will lose its identity in Andhra assembly, while BJP will get presence in the House.
In fact, the BJP was expecting that there would be large scale exodus of the TDP MLAs into it, but it did not happen. So, it is looking for second rung leaders.
“However, Rapaka’s defection will trigger exodus from other parties into the BJP,” sources added.