Seat-sharing talks almost over, BJP, TDP set for tieup

The BJP is set to announce its alliance with the TDP in Andhra Pradesh within the next week, including the seat-sharing agreement for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in undivided Andhra to be held simultaneously on April 30 and May 7.

The BJP is set to announce its alliance with the Telegu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh within the next week, including the seat-sharing agreement for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in undivided Andhra to be held simultaneously on April 30 and May 7.

The alliance would also accommodate the Jana Sena Party of Pawan Kalyan, the brother of actor-politician and state tourism minister Chiranjeevi.

The deal may see the TDP letting the BJP contest 10-11 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the Telangana region and 5-6 of the 25 seats in Seemandhra. The BJP could also get 40 of the 119 assembly seats in Telangana and 15-20 of the 175 in Seemandhra.

In the undivided state, the TDP had 92 MLAs and the BJP 2. The TDP has six Lok Sabha MPs out of the total of 42.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and Prakash Javadekar, who was recently appointed to oversee the party’s election affairs in Telangana and Seemandhra, have been in talks with the TDP on behalf of the party. Former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu had on Thursday pitched for the alliance to be announced before Ugadi, the Telugu New Year, on March 31.

While in Seemandhra the BJP is willing to let the TDP have the lion’s share of seats to contest, in Telangana, the saffron party is confident of reaping electoral benefits from its support to the law to divide Andhra Pradesh into two entities.