Telugu Desam Party on verge of tie-up with Bharatiya Janata Party

Hyderabad: The BJP and the Telugu Desam Party are all set to formalise their alliance for the coming polls within the next three days. An indication to this effect was given on Wednesday by leaders of both parties who were privy to the preliminary talks.

BJP national spokesperson and in-charge of AP affairs Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday in New Delhi that he would be visiting AP on Thursday to conclude talks with the TDP. This was the first time that Mr Javadekar conceded that he had held talks with the TDP on seat sharing.

Meanwhile, two TDP MPs told this newspaper, “Before Sunday we may conclude the seat adjustments; there is no hitch so far, but the BJP is demanding more seats despite being weak in many constituencies.”

BJP Seemandhra president Kambhampati Haribabu will be arriving on Thursday to participate in the talks. TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu is said to have briefed BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi regarding the excess demands of the BJP state leadership in seeking majority seats in both the regions.

Mr Modi will play a key role in deciding the number of constituencies and is expected to brief the party negotiator to confine the numbers as per ground realities. At one stage the Telangana BJP leadership had insisted that they should be given 60-75 of the 119 Assembly and 12 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats, which the TDP negotiators had rejected outright.

“Mr Naidu gave some figure to the BJP and conveyed the same to Mr Modi; I think that will be finally agreed upon,” said a TDP source.

As per the understanding during the preliminary rounds of talks, the BJP may get more Lok Sabha seats in Telangana than in Seemandhra.