Jagan maintains a cordial working relationship with the BJP leadership.
This may help him get additional financial support from the Centre.
B Dasarath Reddy reports from Hyderabad.
The Lok Sabha election in Andhra Pradesh is bringing about a paradigm shift in political equations in favour of the YSR Congress and its chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
However, in neighbouring Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao (also known as KCR) and his party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, are set to receive a jolt.
The TRS is winning only 9 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats, down by 2 from its tally in the previous election. This is in complete contrast to what KCR had expected.
On the other hand, the YSR Congress was leading in 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra and the Telugu Desam Party or TDP was ahead in the remaining 3.
Senior leaders in Andhra, such a former civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, and former Union minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, who fought in the election on a TDP ticket, faced defeat at the hands of YSR Congress candidates.
With 22 seats in its kitty and seeing a close contest in Vijayawada and Srikakulam constituencies, the YSR Congress could emerge the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after national parties, the BJP and the Congress, if it can add one more to its tally.
Despite winning big number of seats, the YSR Congress may have little influence in national politics and may not even make much headway towards achieving the special category status for Andhra, the promise it made during the elections.
This is because the NDA needs no additional support to form the government at the Centre.
Jagan had declared his support for the party which will support and give special category status to Andhra. In an interview to a national news channel on Thursday, May 23, Jagan reiterated that his priority would be to secure special status for his state as that can only change the fortunes of its people.
Jagan maintains a cordial working relationship with the BJP leadership, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi. This may help him get additional financial support, among other things, from the Centre.
Meanwhile in Telangana, the Lok Sabha election is proving to be a big morale booster for the BJP. It has won 4 seats in the state compared to only one it had won in the previous elections. The Congress has also increased its tally to 3 seats in this elections compared to one in 2014.
KCR had targeted to win 16 seats and had hoped that this would catapult him to a national role. In the 17th seat, he has backed his friend, MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi.
KCR's hopes received a big setback after his daughter and sitting MP from Nizamabad K Kavitha faced defeat at the hands of BJP candidate Dharmapuri Aravind.
The BJP snatched three seats from TRS in its bastions -- Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad -- while retaining the Secunderabad seat.
This comes despite the party changing its candidate and denying ticket to former minister and sitting MP Bandaru Dattatreya.
The TRS had won 88 of the 119 seats in the Telangana assembly polls in December 2018. This victory was a bigger one compared to the previous state polls. But the party was jolted by the Lok Sabha shocker just four months later.
The Congress is also seeing a presence this time after being beaten badly in the December assembly election.
