NDA will retain power in 2019 polls, may form alliances: BJP general secy

On the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) fourth anniversary, party General Secretary Ram Madhav addressed workers in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. This was the biggest ever gathering of the BJP after it parted ways with the ruling Telugu Desam Party. 

Madhav told workers that the BJP will come to power in the 2019 elections. He is also said to have suggested a pre-poll or post-poll alliance with other parties, most probably, Jagan’s YSR Congress or Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena. As Chief Minister and TDP chief, Chandrababu Naidu is expected to move closer to Congress and the Left and the BJP might join hands with other players, AP will be one of the most interesting elections to watch.

To leave or not to leave

Buoyed by by election victories, the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar claim to have sent emissaries to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to explore the possibility of restoring the erstwhile “grand alliance” in the state. Sources in the Bihar unit of the Congress also claim that back-channel talks are going on with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), both allies of the BJP. 

These are said to have the endorsement of both Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav who want to cement an anti-BJP entente in the state ahead of the General Elections. LJP and RLSP are reported to have said that they are ready to talk, possibly conscious that seat-sharing will be in the BJP’s favour, should they continue their alliance with them. However, the BJP is supremely confident that Nitish Kumar will not stray. Their one sentence argument — “Where will he go?”