Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Five years after they walked out of the NDA, Telugu Desam Party is now likely to walk back into the fold, with party chief N Chandrababu Naidu landing in Delhi to meet the BJP’s central leadership. On Thursday night, Naidu held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
This is the second time this year that Naidu is meeting the BJP leaders to discuss seat sharing, after the last meeting left the arrangement inconclusive.
Naidu will be joined by Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan, with whom the TDP has announced an alliance in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha as well as the assembly elections in the state.
On Wednesday, in Vijayawada, Naidu and Kalyan met to discuss issues to be included in a joint manifesto of both the parties.
Sources said that while the BJP had asked for 10 seats in the elections, the TDP was willing to let go of only 3-4 seats. Naidu had also meet BJP leaders in February this year.
In June last year, too, Naidu had held meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda. Sources in TDP said that an alliance did not serve any political purpose for the TDP.
The ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), has not been a part of the NDA but had shared a reasonably good equation with the BJP. Right after Naidu’s meeting with the BJP in February, Jagan had called on the prime minister.
Till now, the TDP and Jana Sena have announced a list of 119 seats they will contest on and names of 99 candidates. In all, the state has 25 Lok Sabha seats, as well as 175 seats in the Assembly. As per the announcement, Naidu will contest the Assembly elections from Kuppam.
In the arrangement, Jana Sena will contest on three Lok Sabha seats in addition to 24 Assembly segments.