Hyderabad: The N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh will soon formally rejoin the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Talks have advanced to seat-sharing in the neighbouring Andhra state, given that the BJP is keen on winning more seats from the south. With TDP as its anchor, the saffron party could win a few or handful of seats like it did in 2014 when the TDP, BJP and Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena were in an alliance.
According to a TDP source, the party is likely to give the JSP and BJP about 30-35 seats out of the 175 Assembly seats in the upcoming state and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh. The TDP in 2018 quit the NDA over Andhra Pradesh (AP) not being given ‘Special Category Status’. Soon after, Pawan Kalyan also withdrew support to the TDP and decided to contest the 2019 polls on his own. It eventually became a five-way contest between the TDP, BJP, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and JSP.
The results were disastrous as the TDP won just 23 out of 175 seats, while the JSP could get just one seat. The YSRCP stormed to power with 151 seats and promises of welfare for the people. Party supremo and incumbent AP chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is once again looking to win, but the TDP’s return to the NDA could spell trouble for him.
BJP interested in more Lok Sabha seats
“We might contest about 17 to 18 Lok Sabha seats as seven or eight will go to the BJP and JSP. All those things will be finalised only towards the end of February. TDP’s return to the NDA was bound to happen, but it took time as the BJP made us wait. We must not forget that TDP was very critical of the central government which the BJP did not take too kindly,” stated a TDP leader from AP.
However, there is no clarity on whether this alliance between the TDP, JSP and BJP will work in Telangana as well. In the run up to the Assembly election last year, the BJP and JSP contested the polls together, leaving the TDP out of the equation. It may be recalled that the TDP and BJP contested the 2014 elections in Andhra together, leading to Naidu’s victory. Pawan Kalyan had then supported the alliance. However in the 2019 elections, all three of them contested separately.
A BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh also said that the party is more interested in higher number of Lok Sabha seats as the party wants to increase its national tally. “We have a lot of ground support but that sometimes does not turn to votes as there are two major regional parties. Hence we also decided to go for the alliance as it will help us,” he added.
Seat-sharing almost finalised
While talks are still ongoing between the three alliance partners, it will likely be smooth sailing from this point on. The TDP in fact is even willing to give a few more seats than it should given that it wants to come back to power. “This time we also wanted the alliance as Jagan Mohan Reddy will use the state machinery like the police to cause trouble. With help from the central government, at least we will have some support. We have a lot of support now in regions like Guntur, Vijaywada and West Godavari district,” said the TDP leader.
