Lok Sabha Elections: Chandrababu Naidu plays his cards right, catapults onto national stage

HYDERABAD: The last-minute electoral patch-up with BJP and a return to the NDA fold has resulted in a windfall for TDP in Andhra Pradesh. It also brought forth the fact that TDP has always won big whenever it went to polls in alliance with other political parties in the past-whether BJP, Jana Sena, Left, Janata Dal, BSP or Janata Party. Except for an occasion or two, TDP did not fight any poll without having an electoral understanding with others since its formation in 1982.
TDP, which parted ways with the BJP-led NDA in 2018, was virtually in political oblivion and was kept waiting by BJP national leadership till the eleventh hour.

Like in the past, the poll alliance paid rich dividends not only to TDP and Jana Sena, but also to BJP, which has a negligible presence in Andhra Pradesh. In fact, TDP president and chief minister-in-waiting N Chandrababu Naidu has also emerged as a key player in nationalpolitics. While YSRCP, which fought the polls alone, could win in four of the 25 LokSabha seats in the state, TDP and its partners won 21.
The election was not fought on any major issues in Andhra Pradesh. Even the major demand in 2014 and 2019 polls-special status for AP-had taken a back seat in 2024. But a silent anti-incumbency wave and lack of visible development in the past five years were Jagan's undoing.
An over-confident YSRCP relegated Jagan's father, late YS Rajasekhar Reddy, to the back seat during the campaign, which also did not go down well with the voters.