The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Andhra Pradesh are close to sealing seat-sharing deals ahead of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The TDP is also likely to formally rejoin the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
TDP supremo and former Andhra chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been holding talks with JSP leaders over the last few weeks to finalise numbers. According to a senior TDP leader, 30-odd seats out of 175 will likely be given to the BJP and JSP. Similarly, out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, six or seven seats will go to TDP’s NDA partners.
“Pawan Kalyan and Chandrababu Naidu held discussions a month ago itself. Later, Naidu went and met Union Home minister Amit Shah leading to the decision on TDP rejoining the NDA. Things are more or less set and will be formally announced by the end of the month,” said a TDP leader from Andhra, who did not want to be named. He said the TDP was not hard pressed for a bargain on the number of seats, given the fact that a split in opposition would help the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
“If the Jana Sena or BJP lose two seats, it means we also lose as we are together. So every seat is important, and a few seats more to them is not a problem. Moreover, we will be helping Jana Sena candidates with funding anyway. One of the reasons we wanted an alliance with the BJP was to ensure that there is no imbalance in terms of power as Jagan Mohan Reddy (Andhra chief minister) controls the state machinery. With the BJP running the Union government we will at least have their support,” the TDP leader told TNM.
Though the TDP and Pawan Kalyan-led JSP have been in a formal alliance since last year, BJP’s central leadership took its own sweet time to finally let the TDP rejoin NDA. Naidu had broken his partnership with the BJP in 2018 over the Union government not granting ‘special category status’ to Andhra Pradesh, a promise that was made before the state bifurcated from Telangana in 2014.
Pawan Kalyan had supported the TDP-BJP alliance from 2014 to 2018, after which he also broke ties with Naidu. Hence, in the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, the YSRCP, BJP, TDP, JSP and Congress contested on their own. The YSRCP, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy, swept the polls and won 151 out of 175 Assembly seats, with around 49% of the vote share. The YSRCP won 23 out of 25 Parliamentary seats.
The TDP faced its worst defeat and won just 23 seats securing 10% less vote share than the YSRCP. Though the JSP could win only one Assembly constituency, its performance affected the results in some seats. This is one reason why the TDP is keen on the alliance. Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan also belongs to the numerically strong Kapu community, which is estimated to be about 20% of the state’s population.
A Jana Sena Party functionary stated that talks are going on for seat-sharing and the numbers are yet to be finalised. “We are expecting probably around 35 Assembly seats. Things will be decided towards the end of February,” he added. Confirming seat-sharing talks, a BJP leader from Vijayawada said the final decision will be taken by the high command by the end of February.
The upcoming AP elections are also important for the TDP, as it is likely to be the last one for Chandrababu Naidu. His son and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh is likely to take up the mantle eventually.