JSP, TDP and BJP should together contest the 2024 elections in Andhra Pradesh, avers Pawan Kalyan

JSP chief Pawan Kalyan says he is confident that the BJP leadership will consider the aspect, as unity of the opposition parties is the need of the hour to save the State from slipping into a deeper crisis precipitated by ‘YSRCP misrule’

Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan said on October 6 that he had supported the TDP-BJP alliance in 2014 to play a constructive role in the development of Andhra Pradesh.

“I desire that the JSP, TDP and BJP should contest the 2024 elections together to ensure that the anti-YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) votes do not split,” Mr. Pawan Kalyan said while addressing the media at the party office near Mangalagiri. He exuded confidence that the BJP would come along upon realising the importance of the unity of opposition parties.

Getting rid of the YSRCP was essential, he said, while noting that people heaved a sigh of relief in response to his announcement of the JSP-TDP alliance as an “alternative government” appeared on the horizon.

Mr. Kalyan said he had laid greater emphasis since 2021 on the need for JSP, TDP and BJP to wage a collective battle to save the State from deeper crises precipitated by the YSRCP misrule.

The JSP chief said he apprised the Central government and the BJP leadership about the current situation in Andhra Pradesh, where the opposition parties were being intimidated through implication in false cases, like it happened in the case of TDP national president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. 

Asked whether he believed that the BJP could be behind Mr. Naidu’s incarceration, Mr. Kalyan said he would not jump to that conclusion, and insisted that it was the sheer arrogance of YSRCP and the misuse of the official machinery that landed Mr. Naidu in trouble with clear political motives in the episode.

He said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should strive to get the requirements of A.P. fulfilled by lobbying with the Centre, instead of advising the opposition parties on their strategy for the 2024 elections.