Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena Party are locking horns against the incumbent YCP government in AP. While there are disturbances regarding MLA seat announcements and related topics, TDP and JSP have strongly decided not to let this affect the core principle of the alliance, which is defeating the YCP government and coming to power together.

But on the flip side, there is a group of hardcore TDP supporters who are not fully interested in the alliance with JSP right from the day it was announced. They want TDP to fight the election battle alone no matter if the party wins or not. This hardcore group might be in the minority but they are frequently expressing their opinion by speaking against the alliance whenever there is a disturbance. Parallelly, there is a hardcore group in JSP as well, who aren’t in support of the alliance.

With his speech the other day, Pawan Kalyan has triggered the hardcore TDP fans and they are deeply upset with him. This section of TDP supporters is particularly hurt by Pawan Kalyan quoting Nara Lokesh’s statement on no power-sharing and confirming that Chandra Babu will become the CM once the alliance wins the election.

On one hand, Pawan Kalyan keeps saying power sharing is not important for him and he wants the alliance to continue for a decade. On the contrary, he quoted Lokesh’s comment on Babu becoming the CM in the alliance government, which is practical and the accepted reality. Pawan said he isn’t fazed by Lokesh’s comment and is ready to bear with it, but at the same time, he pushed the power-sharing aspect further and announced two MLA seats.

For this hardcore group in TDP, what is more concerning than Pawan’s announcement on the two seats is the way in which he actually announced them. Pawan quoting Lokesh’s statement to push JSP’s prospect might work with JSP followers who want to push power-sharing. But TDP hardcore loyalists aren’t liking the way Pawan handled the situation.

Their version is that TDP announcing the Mandapeta seat is backed by the party winning from here in 2009, 14, and 19. Araku is a seat that JSP didn’t even contest in 2019. Had Pawan Kalyan intricately explained JSP contesting in Razole by saying the party won the seat in 2019 already and there is pressure to go again, it would have been more sensible. As for Rajanagaram, TDP already has a strong in-charge in Boddu Venkataramana Chowdary here and the party won the seat in 2014. Even if Babu and Pawan had an agreement on this seat, the announcement could have been made slowly and more comprehensively, instead of Pawan hurriedly announcing it in a JSP meeting.

Pawan saw this purely as a tit-for-tat exchange and this might appease JSP supporters who see this as an ego-boosting incident that aids the power-sharing aspect in the alliance but it has hurt TDP’s faithful.

For the alliance to prosper, TDP and JSP should throw punches at their political opponent YCP but not share punches among themselves. Internal clashes between the faithful of the two parties will constrain the efforts of the majority of the supporters who want the alliance to prosper at any cost. If these hardcore groups get triggered and share their opinions on social media, it will not reflect well on the whole alliance.

Incidents like these will give YSRCP the chance to expose the weak links in the alliance by highlighting these clashes and that is not what Chandra Babu and Pawan Kalyan want before the polls.

With Sharmila reviving AP Congress, the list of opponents for YCP has increased. This could help Jagan as the increased number of oppositions will mean that the anti-incumbent votes will be split among more parties. So, if the vote transfer for the TDP-JSP alliance is to happen smoothly, they have to stand united among themselves, only then will the alliance project a unified image and attract the anti-YCP votes. For that to happen, incidents like the ones mentioned above have to be avoided strictly.

Pawan Kalyan also rightly pointed out that the ultimate goal is to have the TDP-JSP alliance in power and the power-sharing topic will come into discussion only later. Both TDP and JSP should walk the talk and avoid such publicly depreciating incidents.

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