Delhi Confidential | BJP’s dilemma in Andhra: how to deal with YSRCP

Now that preparations are afoot for the next Assembly polls, BJP will hold a two-day meeting to review activities of its local unit and decide the future course. Going ahead, party leaders promise, the state would see an aggressive BJP.

Jagan Mohan Reddy

Putting them in a spot: In Andhra Pradesh, the state unit of BJP is faced with a strange dilemma: how to deal with YSRCP, the party that governs the state. Although the state BJP holds agitation and protests frequently against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, his party’s stance in Parliament — a friendly party at the Centre, YSRCP extends issue-based support to the government — often weakens its opposition in Andhra Pradesh.

Now that preparations are afoot for the next Assembly polls, BJP will hold a two-day meeting to review activities of its local unit and decide the future course. Going ahead, party leaders promise, the state would see an aggressive BJP.

On duty: The Congress on Tuesday said that party chief Sonia Gandhi has deputed Madhya Pradesh unit chief Kamal Nath and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to attend Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s funeral as Congress “representatives”. Among party leaders who reached Saifai, besides Nath and Baghel, were Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Mallikarjun Kharge, a candidate in the Congress presidential polls.

It was known on Monday night itself that Gehlot would reach Saifai to attend the funeral. The party’s statement on Tuesday, therefore, evoked much curiosity.

As for Kharge, Sonia could not have sent him as party representative since he is a candidate in the race for the party president’s post, and the leadership has already professed neutrality in this contest.

Treatment time: RJD president Lalu Prasad left for Singapore on Tuesday for medical treatment, accompanied by her eldest daughter, Misa Bharti. A Delhi court had last month allowed the veteran leader to travel abroad for this purpose. The former Union minister is suffering from multiple complications.