Bharatiya Janata Party will not say no, if the Telugu Desam Party wants to re-join the National Democratic Alliance now or after the next general elections, according to party president Amit Shah.
In an interview to Indian Express Group (which will be published on Sunday), Amit Shah said it was the TDP’s decision to walk out of the NDA and snap ties with the BJP.
“There is not much to read in the TDP leaving the coalition. It was the TDP decision and BJP did not throw it out. If it wants to come back into the NDA fold, we welcome it,” he said.
He, however, clarified that the BJP will not go to the TDP to revive the alliance.
“It is for the TDP to decide what it wants,” he said.
Shah asserted that the exit of the TDP from the alliance would not make any difference to the BJP, as was evident from the defeat of the recent no-confidence motion against the NDA government.
The BJP chief seems to be of the view that there is no point in pampering the TDP at present, as TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been going aggressively in its attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
If the BJP starts an attack on Naidu now, he will only convert it into his political advantage.
So, it will not make any attempt to antagonise Naidu for now, except to claim that the Centre was doing everything for the state. In any case, the BJP does not have much stakes in AP for now.
After the next elections, the BJP feels the TDP would have no choice but to come back to the NDA anyway, if the latter comes back to power for a second term.
