With less than a month left for the declaration of results for general elections across the country, all eyes are on what role Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are going to play at the national level in deciding the formation of a new government at the Centre.
Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has little prospects of coming to power in the state for a second successive term, is going all out to gain a hold at least in the national politics.
Even if the TDP wins half a dozen seats, he will be a crucial player in Delhi, as he has been bringing all the anti-BJP parties together on to a common platform to support a non-BJP coalition government.
Naidu campaigned for two major parties in the south – DMK in Tamil Nadu and Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka and both of them have an electoral understanding with the Congress.
And both the parties have a big chance of winning majority of the MP seats down south. In Maharashtra, NCP also have a tie-up with the Congress.
In West Bengal, though Mamata Banerjee is strongly opposed to the Congress, she may have to fall in line with Naidu, if she does not get good number of MP seats there and Congress improves its position across the country. In such a scenario, Naidu will be a crucial player even with five or six MP seats.
However, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is keenly watching the developments, has also started moving his pawns. His objective is to neutralize Naidu’s role in Delhi politics.
So, he gave the leaks to media that soon, he would start touring all the states to mobilise the support of regional parties for the proposed federal front plan.
He has the backing of YSR Congress party which is expected to win 16-19 MPs, Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party combine in UP which is expected win at least 40 MP seats and of course, Mamata Banerjee might also be willing to join the federal front.
But, if KCR wants to put down Naidu’s role, he has to break the alliances of the DMK, JD (S) and NCP with the Congress, and rope the these three parties into the federal front.
“If KCR can mobilise at least 150-160 MPs, he can be the kingmaker and Naidu will have to take the backseat. It remains to be seen who will be have the bigger say in the national politics after May 23,” a political observer said.
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