The BJP is on the verge of striking an electoral deal with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) in Andhra Pradesh and taking a major stride towards bringing back one of its major former allies to the NDA fold.
TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and JSP chief Pawan Kalyan are awaiting another round of discussion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda on Friday night. They are expected to discuss the number of Lok Sabha seats that each side wants to contest, sources said. Naidu, according to insiders, is ready to give the BJP four to five seats of Andhra Pradesh’s 25 Lok Sabha seats while the latter is bargaining for nine. For the Assembly elections, which will be held simultaneously, the BJP initially demanded 15 but could make some compromises. But for the Lok Sabha polls, it is insisting on more Lok Sabha seats as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the party a target of winning 370 seats. For the NDA as a whole, the target is winning 400-plus seats.
A source in the TDP said Naidu does not want to completely give away the party’s stake in the Lok Sabha as “he thinks it is very important to have a respectable number of seats in the Lower House of Parliament” for the stability of the alliance. A BJP functionary said the party was keen to get its erstwhile partner back in the NDA as well as “increase the number of candidates who contest and win on the lotus symbol”.
Naidu, Pawan Kalyan, and the BJP leadership held discussions past midnight on Wednesday too. “The agreement is more or less done. But a formal announcement will be after the final round of talks today,” said a source.
The TDP broke its alliance with the BJP in 2018 over Andhra Pradesh not receiving special category status from the Centre. Despite Naidu’s repeated attempts to revive the ties after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had been dragging its feet over allowing the TDP back into the NDA. One of its main reasons was its “friendly partnership” with Andhra’s ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The BJP made several attempts to reach out to Jagan and get the YSRCP to join the NDA but the Andhra CM has resisted those efforts so far. The BJP offered Cabinet berths to the YSRCP in 2021 in an attempt to bring the party over to the NDA, but at the time Jagan maintained that he “would remain friendly towards the Centre and extend issue-based backing to it”.
Last year, the BJP lost both its only southern stronghold Karnataka and failed to stop the Congress from coming to power in Telangana despite a high-decibel campaign. Having saturated itself in the Hindi heartland states and Gujarat, where it has won all in previous elections and is in a commanding position this time, the only way it can increase its tally this time is by making gains in the southern states. The party has officially joined hands with Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and in Tamil Nadu it is attempting to bring back the AIADMK into the NDA.
In Odisha, the BJP has almost finalised the deal with former ally Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Sources said the BJP could contest 14- 15 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats from Odisha and about 40 of 147 Assembly constituencies. The final announcement on this alliance is delayed because of differences over some Lok Sabha seats — both the number of seats and candidates — said sources.