With Karnataka polls round the corner, BJP tries to woo Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: In a change of political strategy ahead of elections to Karnataka, the BJP is understood to have decided to handle Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with kid gloves, anticipating that he would at least moderate his attack on the Centre and thus bring down the ill-feeling among the Andhras settled in the neighbouring state against the BJP.

Already the TDP is working overtime to thwart BJP's bid to capture Karnataka. Party's cadres are campaigning in the neighbouring state asking Andhra voters to vote for any party other than the BJP for denying Special Category Status to AP and keeping on hold promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014.

According to sources, Chandrababu Naidu's show of strength in the form of his day-long fast on his birthday on April 20 at Vijayawada, had unnerved the BJP national leadership. 

Naidu's trenchant attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his comments on how the Centre was driving a wedge between north and south had a deep unsettling effect on the NDA as the comments had the potential of upsetting the BJP's prospects in Karnataka.

The TDP sources said that this was the reason why Governor ESL Narasimhan had air-dashed to Vijayawada on Sunday and conveyed the feelings of Delhi to him with a request not to go full throttle at Narendra Modi and the NDA government. The Centre, sources said, was taken aback with the way the hunger strike was organised and the kind of response it had drawn for the protest not only in Vijayawada but also in all other districts where TDP leaders went on similar hunger strikes.

Suspecting that Naidu would launch a high-voltage offensive against the BJP, a few days ago IB director Rajiv Jain called on the Chief Minister and expressed the BJP’s growing concern on the way the TDP has taken to streets against the saffron party, for which there has been no letup even for a day.

The TDP sources said that when the Governor called on the Chief Minister on Sunday, the former conveyed how much Modi was regretted the injustice done to the state and dropped enough hints that the Centre was thinking of doing something big for the state to regain its credibility which had been eroded significantly in the recent past.

The sources said there were indications that to begin with the Centre would release funds for Polavaram project which is fast becoming a dead duck with funds allocation having stopped and extending all the benefits that are being provided to the sates which have Special Category Status.

The BJP, the sources said, might even announce Special Category Status for AP along with Bihar and Odisha just before the general elections, but they admitted it is a very long shot.

One senior BJP leader said that it was a tactical mistake to underestimate Chandrababu Naidu. The BJP now regrets provoking Naidu who had already done considerable damage to the BJP's image by speaking about the injustice done to the state with leaders of all political parties in Parliament.

By Sambasiva Rao Madamanchi