Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan, who are the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, respectively, have quickly become integral parts of the NDA alliance at the central level. They are not just being seen as members of the alliance, but also as star campaign.
Earlier the NDA alliance used both Chandrababu and Pawan Kalyan for the Maharashtra and Delhi assembly election campaign already. Interestingly, India ended up sweeping both these states in the recent election.
The latest news now is that the BJP has finalised the alliance with AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu. This essentially means that AIDMK is a part of the NDA alliance and they will be contesting the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly election as a unified outfit.
Considering the strong Telugu connection and population that is decisive in several assembly seats across Tamil Nadu, we can expect NDA to go all out while utilising the services of Chandrababu and Pawan Kalyan this time.
More importantly, Pawan Kalyan has a strong Tamil roots as he was in Chennai for many years while his brother Chiranjeevi was active in films there. He is equally fluent in Tamil as well. So he might have a crucial role to play in the upcoming Tamil Nadu election campaign.
As for Chandrababu Naidu, he is a much loved politician in Tamil Nadu for his visionary contributions. He could very well influence a large person of the Telugu vote share here.
With roughly 12 months to go for the Tamil Nadu assembly election campaign, it has to be seen if Kalyan and Chandrababu will be able to do the job for NDA, of course along with the traditionally strong AIDMK ecosystem.