The no-holds-barred attack by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Chief Minister on the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government, at a public meeting in Visakhapatnam, has set the tone for politics in Andhra Pradesh ahead of the 2024 general and Assembly elections. Mr. Shah claimed that Mr. Reddy’s government was “ridden with corruption”. He accused the government of turning Visakhapatnam into a hub of “antisocial elements” and “drug peddlers”.
The general secretary of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) demanded that Mr. Shah provide proof to substantiate his allegations. And for the first time since he became Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy indicated at Palanadu, a few days after the Home Minister’s attack, that his party may not have the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 elections. This has given rise to speculation that the winning combination of the 2014 elections — the BJP, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) — could be back in the reckoning.
While the three parties performed well in 2014, in 2018 TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance alleging that the Centre did not fulfil its promises regarding special status to Andhra Pradesh. Many believe that this was Mr. Naidu’s biggest political blunder. He not only walked out of the alliance, but also launched a tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Shah. TDP workers carried black flags when Mr. Modi toured Andhra Pradesh and threw stones at Mr. Shah’s convoy when the Home Minister visited Tirupati, thus burning bridges with the BJP.
