Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Chief Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, February 24 released the first list of 94 candidates for the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections. The TDP supremo announced that 24 assembly seats and three parliament constituencies have been allocated to Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) as per their alliance agreement. Though a total of 118 seats have been finalised out of 175 assembly constituencies between the two parties, JSP has only announced names of five contestants so far. According to party sources, TDP and BJP are in the final stages of seat sharing talks and the number of seats has not been finalised.
Speaking at the press meet in Undavalli, Naidu said,“Through a rigorous exercise we have collected responses from over 1.1 crore people from various sources and finalised the candidates.”
“23 new candidates have been given a chance in the list. Candidates from Backward Classes, women, and youngsters have been given priority,” Naidu added.
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“Instead of contesting from too many seats and experimenting, we are contesting from fewer seats to prevent splitting of votes. We will hit 98 percent strike rate. Since we are contesting from three lok sabha seats, we will be indirectly contesting from 40 assembly seats,” Pawan Kalyan said.
He also urged the party activists to campaign actively for TDP in constituencies where JSP is not contesting and said, “It is important that every JSP vote should be polled for TDP in seats where we are not contesting.”
After the bifurcation of the state, TDP-JSP-BJP alliance led by Naidu came to power defeating YS Jagan. Later, Pawan Kalyan left the alliance. In 2018, Naidu left the NDA alliance over the delay in special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
JSP has announced its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2023 and hoped that TDP joins the alliance to avoid splitting of anti YSRCP votes. TDP chief Naidu visited New Delhi on February 7 and met Union Minister Amit Shah and BJP national secretary JP Nadda.