Telugu Desam-BJP in a friendly fight'

Hyderabad: Allies Telugu Desam and BJP have decided on ‘friendly contests’ in 10 of the 150 divisions in the GHMC polls and have issued 'B' forms accordingly.

The parties were forced to field candidates against each other after local leaders exerted pressure, some even threatening to leave the party.

As per an earlier understanding, the TD was supposed to contest 87 and BJP 63 divisions.

However, after the last day of withdrawal of nominations and ‘B’ forms were issued to their respective candidates, the TD will be contesting 92 and BJP 68 divisions, meaning that the allies will be pitted against each other in 10 divisions.

These 10 divisions are Adikmet, Jubilee Hills, Patancheru, Subhashnagar, Jeedimetla, Habsiguda, Uppal, BN Reddy Nagar, Ameerpet and Rahmatnagar.

BJP MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar had insisted that his party retains Habsiguda division, while TD leader T. Veerender Goud insisted that it should go to the TD.

After attempts to reach a compromise failed, it was decided that both parties contest.

A similar situation was witnessed in BN Reddy Nagar division, where BJP leader N. Indrasena Reddy refused to leave it for TD. Local TD leaders too were firm on contesting from the division. Likewise, there was no unanimity on the remaining eight divisions, forcing the ‘friendly’ contests.

TS TD president L. Ramana said, “We tried to arrive at a consensus but couldn’t. There was heavy pressure on us from both TD and BJP leaders no to let go of these divisions, hence we decided to allow “friendly contests” in the 10 divisions.”

He said that this was quite common in electoral politics, when two parties opt for alliance.