Amit Shah is pushing Naidu for more | Powertrip

Welcome to Powertrip, a newsletter exclusively curated for TNM subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, and Pooja Prasanna. In this issue, we look at how Amit Shah is pushing Chandrababu Naidu for more, the tough negotiations between DMK and Congress and will Kharge be the PM face of the Congress party..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only.BJP is demanding more seats from alliesBJP’s stated goal is 370 and to reach that number, the party needs to contest more seats. Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena party head Pawan Kalyan held talks with Amit Shah and were told that the BJP needs more seats allotted as the PM wants to ensure the party touches 370. TDP sources say Amit Shah told Nadiu that the BJP is demanding more seats not just from TDP in Andhra Pradesh but from all its allies across the country. Out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP wants 8 seats and this has stumped the TDP. They have already allotted 3 seats to Jana Sena and giving 7 or 8 to the BJP will leave them with just 15 seats. Naidu has told Amit Shah that they are willing to give the BJP 3 seats, but an insider said that if Amit Shah does not relent, TDP will agree to 5. The irony, however, is that the BJP doesn’t have good candidates for even 3 seats, while 8 is a tad ambitious. Naidu has told Shah that by allotting more seats to the BJP, the alliance will lose an opportunity to win more and so the national party must be prudent. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the YSR Congress won 22 seats (49.89% vote share) and TDP won 3 seats (40.19%). Tough negotiations between DMK and CongressThe Congress is hoping to win more seats than it did in 2019 and one state the party is eyeing is Tamil Nadu. From 9 seats last time, the Congress is demanding that DMK allot them 12 seats. The DMK had in fact planned to give the Congress fewer seats compared to 2019 – 7 Lok Sabha seats and one Puducherry MP seat. After many rounds of tough negotiations, the Congress finally piped down their demand and said they would settle for 9+1, the same as last election. But the DMK insists it can give only 8 seats – the number of seats Congress won last time. The final rounds of talks are on and it remains to be seen if Congress can bargain and retain its 2019 number. The DMK wants to close the talks by the weekend. Coimbatore still remains the tricky seat and it all depends on who the BJP’s candidate is. The CPI(M) that won this seat in 2019 has told Stalin that they would like to stand from Coimbatore and have the privilege of defeating BJP President Annamalai. DMK wants to wait for the BJP’s announcement and then decide who will be allotted the Coimbatore seat. Meanwhile, the buzz in the BJP is that Vanathi Srinivasan will contest from Coimbatore and it will not be Annamalai after all.There is also speculation that businessman Vishagan Vanangamudi who is Soundarya Rajinikanth's husband wants to contest elections from Coimbatore. Few sources say that Vishagan has reached out to a party expressing his willingness to contest. While no one is sure which party Vishagan approached, the DMK and the Congress told us that it was not them. Will Kharge be the face of the party?Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal insisted in one INDIA bloc meeting that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge should be made the convenor of the alliance. Armed with a list of 50 seats where Kharge can have a direct influence, Kejriwal made his pitch. Though Kharge was made the convenor of the alliance, many of his supporters are now waiting for a green signal from the Gandhis that he be projected as the PM face in 2024. A source said that when Kharge was asked why he was not asserting himself more, he said that he too was waiting for a nod from the Gandhi family that they want him to be the face of the party. .Zero HourA political story of public importance.When asked to get electoral bond data, SBI limps before SC, but bolts for government.The State Bank of India (SBI) has asked the Supreme Court time till June 30 to provide details of electoral bonds. While SBI moves sluggishly in disclosing the names of those who played secret santas to political parties saying it is a laborious task, the bank has in the past displayed stunning agility in fulfilling similar government inquiries..PowermovesTop 5 political storiesWhy the RSS and YSRCP are against TDP's assembly ticket to a Dalit YoutuberKarnataka revises school textbooks, reintroduces chapters by progressive writersKerala within rights to file petition against Union govt: SC in financial dispute caseWhat DMK MP A Raja actually said about Ramayana and Jai Sri RamTelangana: BRS leader slams Revanth Reddy for 'being friendly' with PM Modi

Amit Shah is pushing Naidu for more | Powertrip

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