If the reports doing the rounds in a section of media are to be believed, Telugu Desam Party headed by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party headed by actor-politician Pawan Kalyan might forge an alliance for the forthcoming civic polls in Andhra Pradesh.
According to these reports, there has been tremendous pressure on both Naidu and Pawan Kalyan to come to an understanding with each other on fighting together in the coming elections.
They feel that it is the only way to halt the juggernaut of YSR Congress party headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, they feel.
In fact, Naidu himself had mooted the proposal with some of his close confidants in the party recently on the proposal to have an electoral understanding with the Jana Sena Party. And the party seniors, too, endorsed the proposal, the reports said.
At the same time, Pawan Kalyan, too, has been under pressure to get into the act soon, as there is little time for the preparation for the local body elections.
Since the party does not have a proper organisational structure, it is better to have an alliance with the TDP wherever it is convenient.
Pawan Kalyan did not make any commitment on the alliance, but the party leaders are keen that it should happen. If he is not interested, there might be a large scale exodus of cadre into the other parties, the reports said.
In fact, there was a talk that Jana Sena and TDP had some sort of understanding before the general elections itself.
The TDP hoped that Jana Sena would split a major chunk of Kapu votes, while it wanted to attract the BC votes.
But both the parties underestimated Jagan’s strength and YSRC strategies and suffered major losses, as Kapus and BCs voted en masse for the YSRC.