Don't have BJP's backing, but have public support and faith in Almighty: Jagan

A day after Home Minister Amit Shah's blistering attack on his regime with corruption and misgovernance charges, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy signaled the shift in his party's equation with the BJP.

Addressing a public meeting in Krosuru, Palnadu district on Monday, Jagan said that “he might not have the BJP's backing, but he is banking on the almighty blessings and public support.”

The state assembly polls are less than a year away, to be held simultaneously with the general elections.

The remarks come at a time when both the ruling YSRCP and opposition TDP are vying to be in BJP leadership's good books.

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The development also follows Shah and BJP President JP Nadda's parley with estranged ally TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi on 3 June. Naidu wants a patch-up with the BJP, after re-seeking the support of Janasena. The TDP-BJP-JSP combine fought the YSRCP successfully in 2014 polls.

Jagan who routinely refers to the “evil nexus” of Naidu's TDP, Pawan Kalyan's JSP and an influential section of Telugu media in his rallies, now went further and mentioned BJP.

“Your Jagan anna might not have the support of a party called BJP. My trust is only in the almighty and you. In this Kurukshetra war, my courage, confidence is you, all the good my government did for every family,” Jagan told a rapturous audience, part of a schools reopening, student kits distribution event.

On Sunday, Shah, who addressed a public meet in Visakhapatnam marking the BJP led central government's nine years in office, said that “the four years Jagan government achieved nothing other than involvement in corruption scandals.”

The saffron party's top leader added that “Jagan should be ashamed”, while pointing out that “AP stands third in the country in farmer suicides.

YSRCP leaders reacted saying that the BJP has fallen in Naidu's trap.

Informal ally

Though YSRCP is not a formal ally, Jagan, commanding 21 Lok Sabha MPs (22nd MP is a rebel) and nine Rajya Sabha MPs, has been supportive of the Narendra Modi government on various issues, bills in Parliament.

Amidst the boycott by several opposition parties, led by the Congress, Jagan attended the new Parliament building inauguration by Modi last month. He had even appealed “all political parties to attend the glorious event, setting aside all political differences, in the true spirit of democracy.”

Jagan meets the PM and other ministers like Shah often in Delhi, presenting a list of state's demands and financial etc requirements.

The opposition TDP, however, alleges the meetings are to seek favour in the ongoing CBI cases in his disproportionate assets case and also the CBI probed murder case of his uncle and former MP Vivekananda Reddy in which Jagan's close relative and Kadapa YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy is reportedly named among the accused.