Shah’s Remarks on AP Raise TD-JS Hopes of Allying with BJP

Responding to a query from media at a programme in New Delhi on Saturday, Amit Shah said family planning is good for the family. But politically, it is better to have a bigger family.

BJP sources say their national leadership will be going in for alliance with the TD-JS combo. A decision on this is likely to be announced before the BJP national council meeting scheduled in New Delhi on February 17 and February 18. Moreover, as BJP is targeting to win more than 303 seats that it won in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and take up the number of seats of NDA grouping to more than 400, Bharatiya Janata Party will definitely go in for an alliance with Telugu Desam in AP, which is capable of providing numbers to the NDA dispensation in retaining power for the third consecutive term.

Though the TD supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu had called on Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda recently, none of them has disclosed what has transpired within them so far.

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan is also expected to meet Amit Shah, but the meeting is yet to materialise.

Meanwhile, both TD and JS leaders have tentatively arrived at a decision on seat sharing as well as on a common manifesto. But they are eagerly waiting for the official announcement of their alliance with BJP, so that they could make some changes in the manifesto and announce seat sharing accordingly.

Telugu Desam leaders have also reconciled themselves to sacrifice some of their seats to accommodate the nominees from both the JS and BJP.

In the interim, AP BJP, led by its chief Daggubati Purandeswari, has started its Gaon Chalo campaign from Nimmakuru in Krishna district on Saturday. The campaign is expected to cover thousands of villages in the state, while exposing failures of the YSRC government on several fronts.