The AP’s new cabinet gives an impression that it was formed with an eye on the TDP’s BC vote base. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had given over 68 per cent of the cabinet berths to the BCs, SCs, STs and Minorities to impress these sections ahead of the 2024 elections.

However, the TDP has been strong and has strong roots into the BCs right from its inception in 1982. Even when NTR was in power and heading the party, the BCs were given priority in the cabinet and party posts. The BC voters even in the undivided Andhra Pradesh gave their lives and votes to the TDP.

Whatever the seats that the TDP had won in the 2019 general elections is mostly because of the BC vote base. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had been reviving the BC slogan these days more only to ensure keep the vote bank intact.

Jagan Mohan Reddy who started giving importance to the BCs too, along with the SCs, STs and Minorities, had completely set his eyes on the BCs now, if one goes by the composition of the new cabinet. The BCs were given the lion’s share in the cabinet and were given prime portfolios only to erase the TDP’s vote base.

BCs are committed voters and they don’t go by the trend. In fact, the permanent vote that the TDP gets in every election comes from these BC sections. It may not be easy for Jagan Mohan Reddy to draw these strongholds of the vote bank from the TDP.

It is to be seen how tough it is going to be for Jagan Mohan Reddy to get the TDP’s vote base erased and the YSR Congress gaining it.