The much-talked about alliance between the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be suffering birth pangs, as both parties are unable to strike a deal over seat-sharing in Seemandhra and Telangana.
The two parties have come to a broad-based agreement to sail together in the two regions as it promises to be a win-win situation for both. The alliance comes following hectic parleys TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu held with BJP president Rajnath Singh, its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior leaders L.K. Advani and Arun Jaitely.
Negotiations started subsequently, but they reportedly hit a roadblock after the BJP’s Telangana unit opposed any alliance with the TDP and the Seemandhra unit pitched for a larger share of seats.
As the impasse continued, the BJP leadership rushed senior leader Prakash Javadekar for talks with the party as well as the main Opposition.
The BJP, according to sources, is seeking six Lok Sabha and 25 Assembly seats in Seemandhra and 11 Lok Sabha and 62 Assembly seats in Telangana. “We are insisting on more seats in Telangana as the TDP will anyway count the seats where the Majlis is predominant in our quota. We have a strong presence in certain constituencies, and the passage of the Telangana Bill has bolstered our prospects further,” a senior leader said.
Though the BJP’s Telangana unit was initially against any alliance with the TDP, it had to abide by the central leadership’s directive. “They [the leadership] wanted us to chose between two options — lose all the seats by going it alone or accept a tie-up if we are keen on seeing Mr. Modi as Prime Minister,” leaders said.
The TDP leaders are, however, unwilling to concede the number of seats sought by the BJP as it will mean a significant loss of political space to the party in the two regions.
