Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will share the dais with Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party chief, actor Pawan Kalyan at a massive public rally proposed to be held at Boppudi village, near Chilakaluripet town in Andhra Pradesh’s Palnadu district on March 17.
A TDP leader privy to the development said the party received a communication from the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday confirming Modi’s visit to Andhra Pradesh to take part in the Chilakaluripet rally.
“After finalising the seat sharing talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership in New Delhi on March 9, Naidu extended a formal invitation to Modi requesting him to take part in the Chilakaluripeta rally on March 17. This morning, we received the confirmation,” the TDP leader said.
This is going to be the first rally of the National Democratic Alliance for the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. While Jana Sena Party is already a part of the NDA, the TDP will be formally joining the NDA at this rally in the wake of forging an alliance with the BJP.
The three leaders – Modi, Naidu and Kalyan addressed joint election rallies in Andhra Pradesh in 2014, when the TDP and Jana Sena Party were part of the NDA. The Jana Sena Party did not contest the elections then, but supported the TDP-BJP combine. In March 2018, Naidu walked out of the NDA on the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh and after that, he never shared a public dais with the Prime Minister.
{{/usCountry}}The three leaders – Modi, Naidu and Kalyan addressed joint election rallies in Andhra Pradesh in 2014, when the TDP and Jana Sena Party were part of the NDA. The Jana Sena Party did not contest the elections then, but supported the TDP-BJP combine. In March 2018, Naidu walked out of the NDA on the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh and after that, he never shared a public dais with the Prime Minister.
{{/usCountry}}An official statement from the TDP on Tuesday said party general secretary and Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh has been entrusted with making arrangements for the public meeting of the NDA allies. Lokesh held a meeting with senior leaders of all the three parties to discuss the arrangements for the rally.
According to the statement, as many as 13 coordination committees have been formed with members of all the three parties for the rally. “The public meeting will be a historic one, heralding a new era in the state politics and help the NDA allies to lead the state into the path of progress,” the statement quoted Lokesh as saying.
The seat sharing agreement among three NDA partners was announced on Monday night, after eight-hour-long talks among the leaders of the three parties at N Chandrababu Naidu’s residence at Undavalli in Amaravati. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda and Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan took part in the talks.
The TDP will contest 144 out of 175 Assembly seats and 17 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats. It left 31 Assembly segments and eight Lok Sabha seats for the two allies. While Jana Sena will contest 21 Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats, the BJP will field its candidates in 10 Assembly and six Lok Sabha constituencies.
In a post on X, Pawan Kalyan said the seat sharing was done keeping in view the future of the state, rather than individual benefits of the party. “All the three parties have taken a step forward with a strong resolve to develop the state and achieve progress,” he said, adding that the alliance would lay a strong foundation for a golden era in the state.