Pawan meets Naidu: Next step towards alliance?

Hyderabad: Moves and counter-moves are taking place in Andhra Pradesh as speculations of early dissolution of the State Assembly gained credence. It is being said that the YSRCP government would dissolve the Assembly any time after May 30 when it would be completing four years in office. The YSRCP may go to polls along with the Karnataka Assembly.

This speculation has made the Opposition parties to have quick re-look into their strategies to ensure that the anti-incumbency votes do not get split. Recently, all Opposition parties -- TDP, Jana Sena, Congress and Left parties – along with other social organisations held a roundtable conference and launched Prajaswamya Parirakshna Vedika.

As a sequel to that meeting, TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Sunday had an over two-hour-long meeting in Hyderabad.

Sources in the TDP said Pawan had come to meet Naidu to express solidarity with the latter in the wake of severe restrictions imposed during Naidu's three-day tour in Kuppam between January 4 and 6, furthering the talk of a prospective alliance between the two parties. Pawan Kalyan had earlier vowed to ensure the Opposition vote in AP does not get split in the 2024 elections, implying a political realignment, to defeat the YSRCP.

On record, they said the main issue that was discussed at the meeting was to launch a united fight against the GO 1 which imposes several restrictions on roadshows, public meetings, etc, with the support of all Opposition parties and social organisations and that alliances could be discussed later. They said saving democracy in AP was their main objective for the present. But the rank and file of the TDP and Jana Sena are convinced that re-alliance was inevitable.

This is the second one-to-one meeting between these two leaders. The first meeting was held in October 2022 when Pawan Kalyan was kept under hotel arrest in Visakhapatnam and sent back to Vijayawada.

Talking to the media, both the leaders said the situation in Andhra Pradesh was worse than that in Emergency. They said they will work with all Opposition forces to save democracy. In all probability, TDP AP president K Atchannaidu would talk to the leaders of Congress and Left parties and other groups to work out a joint action plan to fight the GO 1.

Naidu and Pawan said that they would take the issue to the Centre's notice as it has every right to intervene in such situations. Pawan Kalyan also expressed concern over 34 restrictions imposed on his proposed Yuvashakti programme on January 12.