BJP not learning from its 1999 ‘historical blunder’ Stanley Theodore stanley_theodore@yahoo HYDERABAD, 19 March The BJP has decided not to learn from its mistake of 1999 to have an alliance with the TDP despite the state unit’s desperate attempts with their central leadership that an alliance would do them irreparable harm. In 1999 elections the BJP was the largest reason for TDP president Mr N Chandrababu Naidu retaining power in AP and returned 29 MPs, which was an invaluable addition to the BJP’s 183 MPs. The wind then blew in BJP’s favour because of the Kargil War, the defeat of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government by one vote in Lok Sabha and the Pokharan blasts. “Our main aim now is to see that Mr Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister. We can’t be politically isolated. And the TDP is our natural ally”, a BJP national executive member told The Statesman. In 1998 LS elections the BJP shocked by garnering 18 per cent vote. This drove Mr Naidu from the TDP’s traditional Left allies to the BJP. In 1999 they together got an unmatchable 47.5 per cent of the vote. The TDP from 12 LS seats in 1998 was thus propelled to 29 seats with the BJP. The BJP grew from four to seven. The BJP did fulfil its desire to be first non-Congress government to complete a term at the Centre, but harmed itself from emerging as a dominant force, which would have been possible had it went alone in 1999. Now thanks to hindsight the BJP would have come out as the dominant force in AP, during the vacuum created after the TDP’s defeats in 2004 and 2009. It would have potent enough to prevent YSR Congress president Mr YS Jaganmohan Reddy from emerging the pre-eminent party in Andhra, if not stopped him in his tracks. In Telangana voter is unlikely to take the TDP-BJP alliance kindly for the simple reason that Mr Naidu is perceived anti-Telangana. Mr Advani after 2004 elections publicly said the NDA could not deliver statehood only because of Mr Naidu’s opposition. He went to the extent of saying that the 1999 alliance was a “historical blunder”. So the BJP might get one seat in Telangana and possibly two in Andhra. But the TDP with BJP could gain by getting 3 LS seats in Telangana and an equal number in Andhra. The bottom line is the alliance is fetching the BJP just marginally. In Telangana it’s the BJP that ignited the sentiment by promising statehood in 1998. Much later the TRS came into being. The BJP had it gone alone would have been a force to reckon with, if not in 2019, but certainly in 2024. Thanks to their obsession with Modi-as-PM that appears bleak. It has shot itself in the foot, twice.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 19:45:16 +0000
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