JP, JSP form alliance; to fight for Amaravati

HYDERABAD: The BJP and actor-turned politician Pavan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) formed an alliance on Thursday, and decided to jointly fight for retaining Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh and oppose the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government’s three-capitals plan.
Addressing the media jointly in Vijayawada, BJP and JSP leaders said the new political alliance would contest local body elections in Andhra till the 2024 general elections, as well as jointly fight against the corrupt, casteist and dynasty politics in the state.

JSP president Pavan Kalyan has extended his support also to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, arguing that it would not affect the citizenship of religious minorities in India as being campaigned by some sections. While accusing the Telugu Desam Party of failing to protect the interests of farmers who had pooled land for the capital city’s construction in Amaravati, he assured that the BJP-JSP alliance would protect the interests and aspirations of the state’s five crore people.

Senior BJP leader and in-charge of AP affairs Sunil Deodhar said his party would never forge any alliance, open or secretive, with the TDP of N Chandrababu Naidu or the YSR Congress of Jagan Mohan Reddy. He termed the teaming up with JSP as “an ideological alliance” and vowed to fight against corruption and “state-sponsored religious conversions”.

BJP’s AP unit president Kanna Laxminarayana said the new political alliance would strive to come to power in Andhra by 2024. The alliance will oppose the move of the Andhra government to shift the capital city away from Amaravati and will take to streets and fight legally if needed, he said.

The BJP and JSP leaders said the two parties were committed to decentralisation of development but opposed decentralisation of administration in the name of three capitals — legislative, executive and judicial.