Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena party leader Pawan Kalyan met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda in New Delhi on Thursday, March 7 to discuss possibilities of an alliance for the upcoming Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections. The talks focused on the number of seats to be allotted to the BJP as part of the alliance.
The TDP and Jana Sena have already announced their seat-sharing agreement. TDP has left 24 out of 175 Assembly and three out of 25 Lok Sabha seats for Jana Sena party. The same day, the TDP announced its first list of 94 candidates while Jana Sena released the list of five candidates.
Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan had earlier stated that if the BJP comes forward to join the alliance, they will hold talks and take an appropriate decision. The TDP-Jana Sena combine is likely to leave 5-6 Lok Sabha and 10-13 Assembly seats for the BJP. An announcement is expected on Friday, March 8.
The Jana Sena, which is part of the BJP-led NDA, joined hands with the TDP even before a decision by the saffron party. Pawan Kalyan had long been trying to convince the BJP leadership to join the alliance to ensure that anti-YSRCP votes do not split.
Chandrababu Naidu met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief Nadda in Delhi on February 7 to discuss the alliance. However, no decision could be taken.
The TDP, which had snapped ties with the BJP in 2018, evinced interest in reviving the alliance after suffering a defeat in the 2019 elections. However, the BJP had been cold to Naidu’s overtures as the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government in the state had maintained friendly ties with the Modi government and extended support to the BJP in the Parliament for passing several key bills.