Is Chandrababu Naidu staring at a party-pooper in a Congress-Left parties combine in Andhra Pradesh? Are his dreams to grab all the anti-incumbency votes of YS Jagan beginning to crash-land? The latest political developments, changing by the hour, in Andhra Pradesh indicate this possibility.

Chandrababu Naidu, who seems to be compelled by his personal interests to enter into an alliance with the BJP, is also well aware of the ground reality in Andhra Pradesh. Before anyone could sniff it, he realised that he would have an outside chance of winning the 2024 elections only if he brought all the opposition parties under one umbrella. For that specific reason, he is hankering for an alignment with the NDA this time while already having Pawan Kalyan and his Jana Sena in tow.

Before his latest exercise for alliance talks with the BJP, the TDP chief also moved his cards deftly to keep the Congress and the Left parties in play. The idea was to use these parties for a piggyback ride, in case his alliance trials with the BJP fail to work. He even shrugged off criticism of his political opportunism to persist with this plan.

But as soon as he made a hard pitch with the BJP’s central leadership for an alliance and his desperation to somehow make a comeback into the NDA, the I.N.D.I.A bloc partners (Congress and Left parties) realised that the TDP chief can no more be trusted. In a counter offensive, the Congress, CPI and CPM are seriously deliberating on going to the polls in an alliance of their own. As per sources from these parties, they are also actively engaged in seat-sharing discussions.

CPI National Secretary K Narayana the other day announced that his party would be contesting the elections as part of a Congress alliance. Though the CPM is yet to spell out its plans, a similar announcement is expected from it eventually sooner than later. The Congress, on the other hand, is likely to firm up its plan to this effect by the end of this month. The proposed alliance is expected to get its final shape during the visit of Congress star campaigners Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to Andhra Pradesh next week.

Double whammy for Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan

If these speculations hold true, then, this is going to be the biggest jolt for both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan in their designs to keep the anti-Jagan vote bank intact. The Congress party is trying every trick to project the impression that it had indeed bounced back under the leadership of its recently-appointed PCC chief Sharmila. Though the grand-old party has no real hopes of making it big in 2024 elections, even a marginal increase in its vote share this time is likely to rock the TDP’s boat, more than it can damage YS Jagan’s YSRCP.

Already, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan are clueless about their share of seats and the constituencies where they can field their candidates. With the BJP dragging on the alliance and seat-sharing issue indefinitely, it is turning out to be a major concern for these two parties as the election fever is fast-catching up.

For more than two years now, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have been trying to drive this message home that all the opposition parties need to come together, either overtly or covertly, to defeat mighty Jagan. The Jana Sena chief has been even more vocal in this regard, as he had vowed publicly on more than one occasion that he would take the responsibility to keep the anti-Jagan vote intact.

But, with the prospect of the Congress and the Left parties floating their own alliance in the state, all these desperate efforts are likely to come a cropper with the end advantage going to YS Jagan.