Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan and Union Home Minister Amit Shah
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The BJP and Jana Sena Party are likely to contest the upcoming elections in Telangana together. To chalk out the details for a seat-sharing pact, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday night met Kalyan with BJP state president G Kishan Reddy.
The Jana Sena Party, which has a bigger presence in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, is part of the NDA. In Andhra, JSP has announced an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party.
Sources from the BJP said that the Jana Sena could be given 5-10 seats in areas where they have an influence.
“The Jana Sena has an appeal among people associated with Andhra Pradesh who did not leave during the bifurcation,” a leader involved with the development said.
In the areas in and around Hyderabad, Khamman, Mahabubnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, that border Andhra Pradesh, the Jana Sena has pockets of influence that the BJP is eager to bring into its fold. Kalyan’s influence as a cinestar, too, has resonance across some seats.
The development comes even as TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu is in jail, and his wife Nara Bhubaneshwari has embarked on a yatra, the Nijam Gelavali Yatra, to garner support for her husband ahead of the Assembly elections in the state next year. BJP sources said that an alliance with the TDP is unlikely.
Last week, BJP leaders Kishan Reddy and OBC Morcha chief Dr K Laxman met Pawan Kalyan in Hyderabad urging him to campaign for the party candidates.
The seat sharing talks, however, could run into trouble with Kalyan having declared that his party is looking to contest 30 seats in the 119-member Assembly.
BJP has declared candidates for seats like Kukatpally, Malkajgiri, Medchal, Uppal, etc., where JSP is looking to field candidates.
In its first list for Telangana that the BJP announced on Sunday, it fielded three sitting MPs including former state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Bapu Rao Soyam, and Arvind Dharmapuri.
The party also fielded campaign committee chief Eatala Rajender from two seats, including the Gejwel assembly segment where he has been pitted against his former friend-turned-foe BRS chief and Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.