The national leadership of the BJP has drawn up a plan ‘Mission 2024’ for South India. The party wants to win 40 seats in the five states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, AP and Telangana, besides the lone Puducherry lok Sabha seat in the union territory. But, can its Mission 2024 be achieved without the help of the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh?

There are 119 Lok Sabha seats in South India and this region is BJP’s weakest link. The BJP is strong in North and West India and is steadily improving its strength in Eastern India comprising the North East, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. But, south is where it is at its weakest. Except Karnataka, the party is unable to put up a decent show anywhere else. Despite its best efforts, it has not opened its account in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, it can win only when it latches on to some Dravidian Party. Its next best hope is Telangana, where it is steadily improving. But what about Andhra Pradesh, where there are 25 seats up for grabs?

In AP, the party is not in a position to win even a single seat. The situation in AP is worse than that of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. So the party will have to latch on to the Opposition TDP to win at least a single seat. The party got less than one percent vote in AP in 2019 elections. Given this situation, the only option is to join hands with the TDP. If highly placed sources are to be believed, the national leadership of the party is already exploring options and is trying to open a channel with the TDP. As of now, things are still in a nascent stage, sources say. As the time passes, the BJP will have to open up and seek TDP’s helping hand, say analysts..