JULY 2019 l PARlIAMENTARIAN 55the new government. It will have to
devise ways to deal with the financial
crisis at the state level and walk the
tight-rope with a central government
which would demand political
support to meet its own agenda at the
national level. The YSRCP will have
to decide its stance over the triple
talaq bill, on the National Register of
Citizens (NRC) in Assam, which
could prove to be tricky, given the
BJP’s determination to mould the
national polity in majoritarian,
Hindutva colours.
There is also the lesson to be learnt
from Chandrababu Naidu’s failures.
Naidu supported the BJP and Modi
in 2014, but when he did not get the
special category status for the state,
he broke with the BJP-led NDA
government of Prime Minister Modi,
and he had even tried to forge an anti-
Modi, anti-BJP national alliance. It
did not take off, and Naidu and TDP
The YSRCP analysis might hold
good for the moment, but the
situation is likely to change. One of
the three parties has to emerge as an
alternative if only to keep the ruling
party in check.
The BJP is trying to find a foothold
in Andhra Pradesh by getting the
TDP members to join its ranks as
have the four TDP members of Rajya
Sabha recently. It is not clear whether
the trickle of defections from the
TDP to BJP would turn into a flood,
and whether that in turn would help
the BJP to appropriate the social and
electoral base of the TDP in the state.
Given the caste fault-lines in Andhra
Pradesh, Congress might find it
difficult to move into the space
vacated by the TDP. In many ways,
the Congress shares the same social
and electoral base as that of the
YSRCP. It is therefore an interesting
logjam in the state’s political space.
The absence of a political
opposition and a political alternative
may not make things easy for Chief
Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and his
party. It will become difficult o deal
with the challenges and
contradictions which are inherent in
any complex polity like that of
Andhra Pradesh.
Prime Minister Modi and Chief
Minister Reddy face a similar
challenge – the absence of political
opposition. It might appear to be a
happy situation for a political party
in power without a rival in sight. But
it becomes an unnerving experience
as there is no one around to share the
political burden of governance.
Neither Modi nor Reddy are obliged
to create and nurse the political
opposition, but they will find that it
is not a happy situation without an
opposition which keeps the party in
power on its toes.paid a big price for it.
Chief Minister Reddy may not
want to be too cosy with the Modi
government or become its bitter
critic. The YSRCP may follow the
policy of neutrality, and try to get
what it can from the central
government without playing the
second fiddle to Modi and to the BJP.
At the moment, the YSRCP stands
without a rival in the state politics.
Vijay Sai Reddy rules out the revival
of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) citing
that there is leader in the party to take
over from Naidu, who is turning 70,
and who will not be in a position to
lead the fight in 2024. He says that
neither the Congress nor the BJP can
hope to take advantage of the political
vacuum because the two parties were
responsible for thrusting the
bifurcation of the state on to the
people of Andhra Pradesh which they
did not want.The aBsence of a poliTical opposiTion may noT
make Things easy for reddy. iT will Become
difficulT o deal wiTh The conTradicTions
inherenT in any complex poliTy like ThaT of
andhra pradesh