After polling fewer votes than NOTA in the 2019 election, BJP has managed to forge an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party which has again made it a relevant party in AP. But as hinted by Vijayasai Reddy, BJP first offered the NDA joining slot to YCP, before eventually moving on to TDP.
In a media interaction with a Telugu channel, Vijaya Sai nodded “yes” when he was asked if he and Jagan met prime minister Modi and discussed for an hour about joining the NDA alliance.
About not joining the alliance, Vijayasai Reddy said ‘Our party leader YS Jagan felt the alliance with the NDA is against our party principles so we decided against it. It is true that we met BJP stalwarts but we didn’t want to join the NDA alliance.’
Going by VIjayasai’s media comment, the BJP first approached the YSR Congress with the offer of joining the NDA before eventually materializing the alliance with their old allies, Telugu Desam. Is this a planned media narrative by Vijayasai to destabilize the existing TDP+ alliance, or did Modi actually speak with Jagan for an hour about the NDA alliance? Only time will answer this question.