Naidu Goes Slow on Alliance with BJP

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena, potential electoral partners of the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh, are ill at ease over TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu’s delay in finalising the poll pacts.

Contrary to the eagerness exhibited by the TD to get close to the BJP Central leadership a year ago, and after engaging with the latter in preliminary seat-sharing talks, Naidu, according to party sources, had of late been sending feelers that he was not so keen to accommodate the saffron party in the alliance that he had sealed with Pawan Kalyan’s political outfit.

Irked by the change in the TD’s tactics, the state BJP leaders reached out to their Central leadership to end the impasse and reveal if there would be alliance or not.

“We have conveyed to our central leadership the advantages of having the alliance with the TD as we can win at least a few seats which otherwise would not be possible,” a senior BJP functionary told Deccan Chronicle.

Admitting that the TD did not move much on the matter, the BJP leader said it was high time the uncertainty is ended.

Sources said Pawan Kalyan had constantly been pushing for tripartite alliance and at some stage the dialogue with the BJP took off. The BJP is said to have conveyed its preparedness to contest from Araku, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Hindupur and Rajampet Lok Sabha constituencies and restrict itself to around 10 Assembly segments.

The Jana Sena on the other hand was okay with two Lok Sabha seats and 30 Assembly segments.

The TD, however, was of the view that BJP leaders who want to test their electoral fortunes were eager for the alliance and pushing their central leadership, hoping to win by being part of the TD-JS combine.

While the TD was worried over the prospect of losing minorities’ support in the event of a tie-up with the BJP, it was also of the view that its loyal voters were against the BJP which they feel had been protecting Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy all through.

“Our surveys indicated that the impact of minority vote would be limited to less than 10 seats but we have to deal with the non-minority anti-BJP voters who otherwise wanted to support us,” said a senior TD leader.

Sources in the Jana Sena said Pawan Kalyan also wanted his “big brother” Naidu to take a final call on the BJP before the formal announcement of TD-JS poll pact which the sainiks were expecting to take by Sankranti.