Amit Shah Stirs Hornet's Nest With First Visit

Whether BJP president Amit Shah's recent visit to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh helped boost the electoral prospects of his party for the 2019 elections or not, it has definitely stirred the hornet's nest and triggered a political whirlwind in both the states.

Shah with his three-day visit to Nalgonda district has undoubtedly ruffled the feathers of not only the ruling TRS, but also the opposition parties in Telangana. A war of words is now raging between the TRS and BJP leaders over Shah's assertion that the BJP-led central government provided financial assistance to the state to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crores. What is intriguing is that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, in an unexpected and never-before outburst, unleashed a tirade against Shah while disputing the latter's claim about the Centre's assistance. What is more, even the ministers and TRS leaders went full throttle against the BJP and its leadership. And the local BJP leaders have not refrained from giving it right back.

Interestingly, amidst all this "tu tu, mai mai" between the TRS and BJP leaders, the pink brigade has trained its guns only against the saffron leaders, and conveniently avoided targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for obvious reasons. What is more, while going hammer and tongs against Shah, KCR even lauded the Prime Minister for his "clean and corruption-free" administration. It'e easy to surmise that there is something more to it than meets the eye in this stance of KCR.

Another party that seemed to have been ruffled by Shah's visit is MIM. The BJP president's claim that the saffron party would demolish the MIM bastion in the Hyderabad parliamentary constituency and would unfurl its flag in the 2019 elections has definitely pricked the nerves of the MIM president and constituency MP Asaduddin Owaisi.

The MIM chief lacerated Shah and challenged him to face him in the coming elections from the constituency. He declared that Shah would face the same fate as Venkaiah Naidu, who contested and lost against his father in the past. Owaisi even threw a challenge to the BJP leadership that the party would not win even a single one of the five Assembly seats it (the MIM) currently represented in the city.

The Congress leadership in Telangana seemed more interested in trying to fish in the troubled waters, claiming that the TRS and BJP were actually indulging in match-fixing and fooling the citizens of the state, and that they might even enter an alliance for the 2019 elections. Anf the AP Congress chief criticized the BJP leadership for failing to ensure that the state got Special Category Status.

While those are the public reactions of the various key parties, Shah's visit also seems to be leading to some hitherto unthinkable political alignments. Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Sudini Jaipal Reddy said his party was not averse to a tie-up with TDP in Telangana, though this was much to the chagrin of the other party leaders.

Another interesting development after Shah's visit are the sudden cracks in the relationship between the ruling TDP in AP and the BJP. Though the BJP is an ally of the TDP in AP as of now, how the relationship is going to be in future has become a talking point now. During his meeting with his party leaders in AP, Shah seemed to have been advised that the party should go it alone in the 2019 elections. This opinion seemed to have been openly aired during a public function attended by Shah. The fissures in the TDP-BJP relationship seem to have already commenced. What is more, there is talk in political circles that the BJP might even enter an electoral understanding with the YSR Congress.

Shah's three-day stay in Telangana and a brief visit to AP have certainly warmed up the political atmosphere in both the states.