Uf Rally Cements Naidu-Bjp Election Pact

An electoral understanding between the BJP and the Telugu Desam for the 1999 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh appears a certainty after this weeks United Front rally in Hyderabad pushed party chief N Chandrababu Naidu further into the BJPs arms.

Its success, however, worries both the TDP and the BJP, since the rally proved that Naidu has suffered a serious erosion in his support base. At the rally, senior United Front leaders - mainly from the Left parties - heaped ridicule on Naidu and chided him for extending support to the Vajpayee government.

The rally proved that the Left and centrist parties in the state remain a strong force. They could prove dangerous for the nascent BJP-TDP alliance if they ally with the Congress.

 

The rally was a major show of strength, and marked a complete turnaround from the one held on the same venue three months ago, when Naidu was hailed as a symbol of secularism and the brain behind the United Front. This time he was the target of repeated criticism by all speakers, forcing him to take note and warn the Vajpayee government not to take any step that could alienate the minorities, who have now moved away from his party.

Naidu has virtually opted out of the Front by telling his former colleagues that he can rejoin only if the coalition commits itself to work for a non-Congress, non-BJP government instead of supporting a Congress government.

There is a sharp division within the Front on allying with the Congress, but most senior leaders, except perhaps former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, are reluctant to commit themselves to any restriction in the event of the Vajpayee government falling.

Now that the shift is all but formal, a senior BJP leader gleefully said the state party unit has already begun identifying the seats the BJP would like to contest in alliance with the Telugu Desam.

For their part, Front leaders express dismay in private over the lack of cohesion between the remaining constituents on the approach towards the Congress. There is a sense of deja vu among some Front leaders on the latest demonstration of proximity by Tamil Maanila Congress chief G K Moopanar towards the Congress and its president, Sonia Gandhi.

It is not without significance that the TMC was not invited for the United Fronts Hyderabad rally. The TMCs involvement in Front affairs has progressively dwindled since the recent elections. The DMK, too, was kept out of the rally, allegedly because of the soft stand taken by M Karunanidhi towards the Vajpayee government,.and the regular contact between BJP functionaries and senior DMK leader Murasoli Maran in the Capital.