The report was sought by the leadership after the State unit wanted the party to go it alone

In a confidential report sent to the central BJP leadership, a State party functionary argued in favour of having a pre-poll alliance with the Telugu Desam claiming that such an arrangement would be beneficial for both the parties in Telangana as well as Seemandhra regions.

The report was sought by the Central party after the State leadership expressed itself strongly that the BJP should go it alone in the next elections.

Referring to the view that BJP would emerge as an alternative to the Congress in Telangana, if not now, at least by 2020, the report described it as a “hypothetical political argument”. It mentioned that parts of Hyderabad city, Ranga Reddy, Khammam, Nizamabad and Nalgonda were dominated by “settlers” and those districts constitute 60-70 Assembly seats.

The report titled as ‘The Factual Political Report in Andhra Pradesh’, said that of the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana, as many as 34 constituencies were located in and around Hyderabad where the “TDP will have good political mileage because of the fear among the settlers”. In another 35 constituencies, “the Telangana impact is very little”.

It stated that the Telangana agitation had an impact in Warangal, Karimnagar, parts of Medak, Nizamabad and Nalgonda (Bhongir) whereas large parts of Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad city, Khammam, Adilabad and parts of Nizamabad had no significant sentiment.

While pointing out that BJP won only Mahbubnagar seat during the 2012 by-elections when it contested 11 seats, the BJP candidate got 9,000 votes in Parkal seat while the TDP nominee secured 31,000 votes. The seat was won by TRS by 2,000-vote margin.

Touching upon Greater Hyderabad, it said there are 25 constituencies with MIM representing seven, BJP, TDP and Lok Satta (one each) and the rest by Congress. In all the seats, the TDP stood in second place in last elections, except Goshamahal.

While acknowledging that the Telangana issue gave a good political base to BJP in the region, it said the party lost its entire base in Seemandhra because of the stand.

Expressing doubts over the likelihood of TRS-BJP combine, it said TRS was apparently moving closer to Congress and even talked of merger.

The report stated that the voting pattern in Parkal and other by-elections in Telangana showed that TDP garnered respectable number of votes and still enjoyed the support of large number of OBCs in the region.

Correction

The article has been edited to incorporate the following correction:

“BJP report pitches for poll tie-up with TDP” (Dec. 12, 2013) said the Parkal seat was won by the TRS by a margin of 20,000 votes. Actually, the margin of victory was 2,000 votes.