For the last few days, there has been attempt by some regional parties to come together to form an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party political front at the national level.
These regional parties were earlier part of the Congress-led UPA government.
Down South, regional parties like DMK in Tamil Nadu and Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana have already jumped into action, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala and the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka are also extending support to this anti-Modi front.
But there are certain parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha and YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, which are not able to take any stand against the Modi government, despite the fact that the anti-BJP sentiment is gradually building up across the country.
Particularly, the YSRC which has 22 Lok Sabha members is definitely a major force to reckon with and if it joins the anti-BJP front, it will give a big boost to these efforts to dethrone Modi.
But YSRC president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is not able to take any decision on putting up a fight against the Centre for his own reasons.
He is more interested in sustaining his party’s hold in the state and completely decimating the TDP. He has no interest in Delhi politics.
Secondly, he cannot afford to put up a fight with the Centre at this stage in the wake of weak financial position and also the cases being probed by the CBI. Any aggressive posture against the BJP at this stage might result in witch-hunt by the Centre.
But sources say Jagan has kept his option open, in the event of the national political scenario turning against the BJP.
Secondly, despite maintaining cordial relations with the Centre, the CBI is going a little aggressively against the YSRCP in general and Jagan in particular.
The latest arrest of the YSRC social media activists, the unusual interest by the CBI in fixing Jagan’s cousin and Kadapa MP Y S Avinash Reddy in Vivekananda Reddy murder case and the tough posture put up by the CBI and ED in the alleged quid pro quo case against Jagan indicate that the Centre doesn’t have any soft corner towards him and that it is trying to keep him in control using investigation agencies.
Under these circumstances, if the Centre tries to trouble Jagan in any of these cases, he might have to give up his neutral stand and join hands with the other regional parties to fight against the BJP.
“It doesn’t take much time for Jagan to decide on his stand for or against BJP. If the CBI resorts to the arrest of Avinash Reddy or any other top leader, Jagan might revolt against the Centre. So, the BJP has to decide whether it needs the support of Jagan or make him an enemy,” an analyst argued.