Bharatiya Janata Party, which has entered into an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections after intense lobbying by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, is now virtually resorting to arm-twisting tactics to bring pressure on him for allotting good seats.
Though Naidu allotted 10 assembly seats and six Lok Sabha seats to the BJP, the saffron party leaders are not happy, as they feel most of the seats are those where the YSR Congress party is strong and hence, neither the TDP nor the BJP has any chances of winning.
Following the letter written by a few senior leaders to the party national leadership, BJP state president Daggubati Purandeshwari went to Delhi on Tuesday and held discussions with the top leaders.
The BJP national leaders have asked Purandeshwari to identify the seats where the party has winning chances. Though the TDP chief has already announced two lists of his party candidates for 128 seats, some of them could be allotted to the BJP, they said.
For example, the BJP leaders are asking for Paderu, Anaparthi, Guntur (West), Srikalahasti and Kadiri seats, but Naidu has already announced his party candidates for them. Similarly, they want MP seats other than Vizianagaram, Anakapalle and Araku seats.
According to the TDP sources, the BJP is asking for four seats in Rayalaseema, three in coastal Andhra and three in north Andhra. But the TDP is also much stronger in these seats and if they are allocated to the BJP, there will be a revolt in the party and that will ultimately damage the prospects of both the parties, Naidu feels.
But the BJP national leadership is bringing pressure on Naidu to change the TDP candidates in favour of BJP candidates, but Naidu is telling them that any changes at this stage will result in a complete chaos.
Naidu knows that having come up to this stage, the BJP cannot go back on alliance, but at the same time, he is also worried that the TDP would be at a big loss, if the Centre doesn’t help the TDP in the election process; as it would ultimately benefit the YSRCP.
Because of this stalemate, Naidu has deferred the announcement of MP candidates and third list of MLA candidates. It will be interesting to see how both the parties resolve these issues.
