Jagan’s airdash to Delhi points to early election

New Delhi: Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is said to be contemplating dissolution of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly to go in for early elections along with Telangana and four other States - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

Sources on Wednesday indicated that Jagan Mohan Reddy's hurried visit to New Delhi is said to be "for consultations with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah" in this regard.

It is learnt that Jagan Reddy, though not "unduly worried" about his comeback in the next year's general elections, is planning his move to strike a 'deal with the BJP' in connection with this gambit for a win-win situation.

"Early elections will offset the calculations of the Opposition in the State. The Opposition alliance is still not cemented in that sense. Jagan does not want to give them any chance to bond together properly to take him on.

He also does not prefer to distance himself from the BJP leadership as a wider anti-BJP alliance proposal has not even taken off on the expected lines and there seems to be little chance of a cohesive fight against Modi. It would be prudent for the YSRCP to come back to power through early elections like the TRS then,” the sources said.

Andhra Pradesh has 25 Parliament seats. Despite his ‘closeness’ and ‘support’ to the BJP in Parliament during every crucial movement or whenever any Bill’s passage was important, Jagan had not become a member of the NDA. This could change if Jagan is assured that his party’s interests will be protected by the BJP and he could even move into its alliance post the UCC-experiment. There is already a churn among the political parties in the country over the issue and fissures are opening up in the anti-BJP alliance due to this. Maharashtra is reeling under its impact and the AAP has extended its conditional support to the UCC.

It is said that Jagan Mohan Reddy does not want to waste time now and swiftly makes his strike at the second term which would open up a BJP-YSRCP alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. This could also prevent a BJP-TDP alliance in future. It would immensely benefit the BJP too to take in the YSRCP as an ally if it comes to number crunch.

Of course, Jagan would also be referring to certain ‘constraints’ he is facing for ‘shackle-free” functioning and a clean nod for three Capitals issue and additional funds for the development of the State which could be even a hefty financial package, it is said.