TDP deal unsure, BJP courts TRS

A last-minute glitch in its seat-sharing talks with the TDP for Seemandhra has prompted the BJP to open a front with the TRS in Telangana. The BJP had asked the TDP to leave 10 LS seats in Telangana and another half a dozen in Seemandhra, but the TDP opposed.

A last-minute glitch in its seat-sharing talks with the TDP for Seemandhra has prompted the BJP to open a front with the TRS in Telangana.

The BJP had asked the TDP to leave 10 LS seats in Telangana and another half a dozen in Seemandhra, but the TDP opposed. “The offer made by the TDP is not workable. Our leaders in Andhra Pradesh are exploring an alliance with the TRS,” a BJP leader confirmed to HT.

The TDP, which considers an alliance with the BJP to be attractive, but it isn’t willing to leave too much space for the BJP.

Although the BJP’s Telangana unit declared on Saturday night that it wanted to go it alone, the parliamentary board is likely to take a final call on a tie-up with the TDP on Monday. A meeting of the central election committee will also be held later.

In Hyderabad, former party chief M Venkaiah Naidu said the party could not wait indefinitely. He told reporters: “There seems to be some sort of a stalemate (over the talks with the TDP).”

The BJP’s 24-hour deadline for N Chandrababu Naidu to take a final call on the alliance comes in the backdrop of its assessment that the party was counting on the ‘Modi wave’ to contain the YSR Congress in Seemandhra.

BJP source are still not ruling out an alliance with the TDP, if there is a ‘respectable’ seat-sharing deal for the coastal and Rayalaseema regions.