How Pawan Kalyan's decision to not split anti-YSRCP votes made him a ‘game changer’ in Andhra Pradesh politics
It is a popular belief in political circles of BJP that Pawan Kalyan played a key role in bringing back Chandra Babu Naidu to the NDA.
“We will not let anti-YSRCP vote get divided in Andhra Pradesh,” stated actor and Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan back in March 2022 at Ippatam, hinting at an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Kalyan did not look back after that and his decision to form ‘Kootami’ with the TDP and the BJP turned out fortune for the NDA in June 4 results.
Also Read - Andhra Assembly results: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan wins Pithapuram seat
How did the alliance in Andhra Pradesh play a key role in its landslide victory?
It is a popular belief in political circles of BJP that Pawan Kalyan played a key role in bringing back Chandra Babu Naidu to the NDA, which he left in 2019, right before Andhra was going for the assembly elections. Naidu, who formed and led multiple coalitions on national level in his four-decade political career even called ‘Kootami’ as best-engineered coalition till date and NDA’s thumping victory in Andhra Pradesh proved it.
It’s all the number game
Out of 175 assembly seats, the NDA (TDP+BJP+JSP) won 164, leaving just 11 to the YSRCP. In 2019, the YSRCP won 151 assembly seats, and the 2024 result is a historical meltdown for YS Jagan’s party.
The results prove that Pawan Kalyan’s decision to not split anti-YSRCP votes was a ‘masterstroke’ move. Here are some numbers.
The YSRCP got over 1.3 crore votes out of 3.3 crore (approx) votes in Andhra Pradesh, with a voting percentage of 39.37 %. But when it comes to a number of assembly seats, it only won 11 out of 175 seats.
Whereas Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena got 28.8 lakh(approx) votes in total and won all 21 assembly seats it contested. Even the BJP got 9.5 lakh votes but still won 8 assembly seats out of 10. Clearly, not splitting an anti-YSRCP vote made him a game changer in Andhra politics. In 2019, Pawan Kalyan lost in two assembly seats that he contested and his party only won one assembly seat. In five years, the tables have turned with Kalyan's party gaining 100% strike rate in the assembly elections.
Chandra Babu Naidu, however, cleared the air and said that he is still with the NDA. Currently (at the time of writing) he is in a meeting with the other NDA leaders in New Delhi. Though the BJP has fallen short of majority to form a government alone as it got 240 seats, it could likely form the government with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister along with the allies in NDA.
