Bharatiya Janata Party, which contested the 2014 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, has decided to go it alone in the 2019 general elections in the state.
This was announced by BJP Andhra Pradesh unit president Kannna Lakshminarayana in Vijayawada on Thursday.
He clarified that the BJP national leadership decided that the party should not enter into an alliance with any other political party in Andhra, but contest the elections on its own.
“This will help the party test its own strength in the state. We shall take into public how the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had provided maximum assistance to Andhra Pradesh which no other state in the country had got in the last four and a half years,” he said.
Kanna came down heavily on Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu for spreading canards against the Centre on extending help to Andhra.
In Telangana, too, the BJP went alone in the recent assembly elections, but put up a miserable show despite massive campaign by all its top leaders including Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah, a dozen Union ministers and half a dozen chief ministers.
It could win just one seat as against five in 2014 and lost deposits in as many as 103 out 119 assembly seats.
However, it could retain its seven percent vote share in Telangana and played spoil sport with the chances of the Maha Kootami.
If it goes alone in Andhra, too, it cannot win even the four seats it had won last time. But, it would certainly damage the other parties.
It remains to be seen whether it would split the anti-incumbency vote or pro-TDP vote. If it splits anti-establishment vote as it has done in Telangana, it will help the TDP and if it other way round, it will benefit the YSRC.