Andhra Pradesh: Target 2024

 The status report on the Andhra Pradesh political setup on the grounds of upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly elections which is going to be a deciding factor in navigating the state’s growth either forward or to a forever standstill. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), currently the main opposition in the state assembly enjoys very few powers as the ruling governments enjoys the absolute majority in the assembly to pass the bills introduced without even having a fruitful discussion on the matter. If this raises any bells in the minds of the sound citizenry with a active mind, Yes! The current union government follows the exact form of the governance after securing the absolute majority in the Lok Sabha for the last two consecutive terms and prepping itself for a third term under the current leadership headed by Mr Narendra Modi and supported by the other prominent leaders like Mr Amit Shah and J. P Nadda. The current union party also enjoys the support from the local electorate as it was observed in the all-recent elections where the party if not won, more or less retained its voter base as observed in the recent Karnataka elections. The party also enjoys the support of many promising new leadership candidates like Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mr Himanta Biswa Sharma and many others who are crowd attracting politicians, a skill which is horned by very few. It must be observed and if not doubled underlined to highlight out that the promising leaders are the ones who have migrated from other major opposition parties majorly the Indian National Congress (INC) and other regional players.

The state of Andhra Pradesh with it’s a new state which had loose most of its resources to the Telangana which had bifurcated from the erstwhile United Andhra Pradesh which consist the Telangana along with Rayalaseema and Costal Andhra regions. Telangana region which was part of the princely state of Hyderabad before getting the independence from Nizams and joining with the Indian Union and in the Andhra Pradesh to form the united state housing all the Telugu speaking populations. The Andhra State which has been the first state to form on the basis of language from the Madras state has included the Telangana region later on to form the Andhra Pradesh state. The state of Telangana was formed in the 2013 after a long protest from the different political and non-political sections on the claims that the region hasn’t developed under the united Andhra Pradesh state as they argue that the major resources are invested on the development of coastal Andhra and the Rayalaseema while underwriting the development of the Telangana region. The claims also focus that the political parties are also dominated by the leaders from the other two regions without any popular representation option for the Telangana leaders. The then TDP politician, Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) who had the experience of working with the supremos like Mr Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao (NTR) and Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu (CBN), had resigned from the TDP and started his own Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) with the sole aim of representing the problems of the Telangana region and achieving the separate statehood for the region which he had succeeded in 2013 when the then INC government sanctioned the statehood for the Telangana on June 10, 2013 which had received a mixed responses from different sections of the state as the people of Telangana welcomed the decision while the opposition parties like the YSRCP and TDP opposed it and even went to streets to put forward there arguments. The long “Samaikya Andhra” struggle was finally concluded without receiving any pull back on the decisions, instead the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh state received the financial and development boons from the then union governments with compliances from the then opposition parties like BJP which include the “Special Category Status” and Common Capital for the period of 10 years.

Post the bifurcation, the states have started their own development plans where Telangana started working on redistribution and rearrangements of the benefits to its residents under the leadership of TRS which had won an astounding majority in the assembly of Telangana whereas the state of Andhra Pradesh under the leadership of CBN had won a commanding majority in the state and started it mega plans to construct a new identity and new capital for the state which lost its to the Telangana. This is the brief history of the states and from now on we will try to understand the current dynamics of both the states and the role of different national and regional parties in shaping the altering the discourses of the future of both the states.