BJP growth unnerves TDP in Andhra Pradesh

Is the BJP emerging as an alternative to senior Congress leaders? As senior Congress leader and former minister Kanna Lakshminarayana formally joined the party, more and more Congress leaders are looking towards the BJP and interestingly, this is unnerving the ruling TDP more than the Congress.

With more Congress leaders reportedly in line to join the BJP, the TDP is worried. Prior to the elections, senior Congress leaders like D Purandeswari and Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, who quit as Union Ministers in protest against the bifurcation of undivided AP, joined the BJP. Interestingly, their entry into the BJP was viewed with concern by the TDP.
Congress which faced the worst drubbing in the recent assembly elections, is showing further signs of decline. The vaccum created by the decline of the Congress is being exploited by the BJP. "There is a vacuum with the decline of Congress. Definitely, there is a momentum in favour of BJP. But, we are not mobilising people to join us," admitted BJP AP president Haribabu.
Significantly, YSRCP MLA and senior leader Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy expressed apprehension that the TDP-BJP alliance may not last long and that the BJP might come out of the assembly.
All this is worrisome for the TDP. The TDP is already unnerved by the BJP's superior performance in Maharashtra, where it pipped past its ally Shiv Sena. It is worried that the BJP's rise could actually embolden it to part company with it.

-Sakshipost