‘Miffed’ TDP breaks ties with BJP after short-lived alliance in Seemandhra

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam D chief N. Chandrababu Naidu split up with the BJP in public at an election meeting in faraway Gajapathinagaram in Vizianagaram district in the northern most corner of the state.

“There is no alliance between the TD and the BJP in Andhra Pradesh,” Mr Naidu said. He said the BJP was fielding weak candidates which would help to the opponents and therefore the TD decided to cancel the alliance with the BJP.

The alliance will continue in Telangana, said Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy. The last date of nominations ended earlier this week.

The pre-poll alliance was on the verge of collapse anyway as candidates from both parties rushed to file nominations in many constituencies, ignoring the TD-BJP seat sharing formula.

On Thursday, TD candidates filled nominations in 7 Assembly segments and in one Lok Sabha constituency which were allotted to the BJP.

The BJP leadership is now preparing to file nominations in as many as 75 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Both parties were 'leaking' information to the media that they were ready to go it alone.

The problem arose after the BJP fielded Gokaraju Ganga Raju for the Narasapuram LS seat and Daggubati Purandeswari for the Rajampet seat, against the wishes of Mr Chandrababu Naidu. Mr Naidu was especially angered by the BJP nominated his estranged sister-in-law Purandeswari, who only recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP.

According to sources Mr Naidu spoke to BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and BJP president Rajnath Singh and expressed his displeasure over the selection of weak candidates. But BJP sources said that their party leaders made it clear to the TD that it has no right to intervene in its selection of candidates.