Talks between Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar on forging an alliance between BJP and TDP remained deadlocked after both sides tried to hard sell each other’s claim on seat-sharing.
Mr. Javadekar held discussions with Mr. Naidu for more than one-and-a-half hours at the TDP leader’s residence on Friday.
It is learnt that the TDP president offered 35 Assembly seats and seven Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in Telangana and three Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats in Seemandhra. The BJP has been seeking 45-48 Assembly and nine Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 25 Assembly and five Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra region.
Mr. Naidu was reportedly firm on not conceding the BJP’s demand for more seats in Seemandhra but might consider increasing the number of Assembly seats to be allotted to 40 or more in Telangana, said sources in both the parties. The TDP leader was believed to have pointed out to the BJP leaders that although he had conceded 45 assembly seats to the TRS in 2009, the regional party could win only 10 of them, which eventually affected the TDP’s chances of returning to power.
He was also reportedly unwilling to accept the BJP’s claim that its electoral chances had improved and that of TDP had eroded in Telangana. In this context, he was believed to have recalled that the TDP candidate in the by-election had secured more than 30,000 votes during the peak of the Telangana movement.
Meanwhile, the Telangana BJP election committee met to recommend the names of probable candidates for some of the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to the central party.
Sources in the BJP indicated that a top central leader was likely to speak to Mr. Naidu.
