Why BJP wants AP CM Jagan to back his sister Sharmila in Telangana

New Delhi: With just a few months to go for Telangana Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party is seemingly trying to nudge YSR Congress Party chief Jaganmohan Reddy to back his sister YS Sharmila to field YSR Telangana Party candidates in the forthcoming elections and ensure a four-cornered contest.

The saffron front feels that a four-cornered contest would help the BJP secure its foothold in the southern Indian state and emerge as a formidable force. With Andhra Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy also having his roots in the neighbouring Telugu state of Telangana, the BJP feels that pitting YS Sharmila against K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi is expected to ensure gains for the saffron candidates. The YSR Congress is also likely to cut into the Congress votes in some constituencies.

Sources stated that this is the reason for the active role being played by YRS Telangana party chief Sharmila in the state over the past few months. The saffron party feels that Sharmila can help ensure a split in the consolidated vote being received by KCR. She is expected to appeal to the Telugu pride of the state's voters and also underline her connection with the former Chief Minister of unified Andhra Pradesh and her father YRS Reddy for securing their votes.

The saffron unit feels that a four-cornered contest and the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would help it secure a foothold in Telangana in the forthcoming polls. This is being considered possible as BRS and YSRCP will be fighting for securing a similar vote bank. Sources said this is expected to leave space for the BJP to emerge.

The YSRCP candidates, if fielded strategically, are expected to hurt the BRS and Congress candidates and help the BJP nominees in the fray, sources added.   This same strategy is also expected to be utilised in Telangana by the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as well.

The BJP is playing its cards strategically to emerge as a serious contender in the battle for 119-member Legislative Assembly scheduled for later this year.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third term in 2024, the saffron party feels that it has its best chance to expand its southern footprint in Telangana. Apart from Karnataka, Telangana has provided the BJP with its best success in southern India.

The importance that the BJP attaches to securing a victory in Telangana can be gauged from the fact that the BJP held its national executive in July last year in Hyderabad.

The BJP has been eyeing expansion in South India ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and with 17 Lok Sabha seats, Telangana is an important part of the plan to secure additional seats in the region.

The party has set a target of winning 100 seats in Lok Sabha from the five southern states of the country.

The move to secure more seats from South India was prompted after senior leadership felt that the party had reached its saturation point of winning Lok Sabha seats in the north, west and Northeast Indian states.

With an aggressive Hindu-Muslim pitch and an attack on the dynastic legacy of the KCR-led BRS, the saffron party hopes to make a major gain in the region and improve its tally of Lok Sabha seats in the state. In 2019 the BJP was able to secure four Lok Sabha seats from Telangana, which it wants to at least double in 2024.

In Telangana, over the past few years, the BJP has been trying to emerge as the new opposition with an aim to sideline KCR and target his family directly. With the KCR government facing a severe anti-incumbency, the BJP feels that it can emerge stronger in the next Assembly polls and later replicate it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

BJP is expected to use a strong Hindutva pitch and the dynastic rule being practised by KCR in BRS over the next few months as the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls near.