BJP, TDP set to seal deal today

• BJP election committee to meet Kishan Reddy
• RSS wants party to contest alone in elections

Hyderabad: Notwithstanding the tough posture by the State BJP, the electoral tie-up between the BJP and the TDP is firming up as BJP national leaders have stepped in and decided to clinch the issue.

Chandrababu Naidu spoke to BJP national president Rajnath Singh on Sunday morning, following which the state BJP leaders were told to work out an acceptable and reasonable solution.

The BJP is likely to accept the offer of about 8 Lok Sabha seats and 40 Assembly seats in Telangana. The party is asking for 5 Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra besides at least one Assembly seat in each district.

It is learnt that the two parties have reached a broad agreement and it would be formalised by BJP’s central election committee on Monday. BJP national general secretary Prakash Javdekar, who has been holding talks with the local BJP leaders on one hand, and TDP supreme Chandrababu Naidu on the other, said on Sunday that he would go back to Delhi and discuss the developments with party president Rajnath Singh. Kishan Reddy, the chief of Telangana BJP chief, is also leaving for Delhi on Monday to explain the stance of the party’s Telangana committee on the issue to the party’s central election committee.

A final decision on the question of having a tie-up with the TDP is likely to be taken at the meeting of the election committee. Narendra Modi, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, is very particular about the alliance with the TDP in the forthcoming elections. He has opined on a number of occasions that the TDP has been a reliable partner and Chandrababu Naidu is a resourceful leader who will be very helpful in mobilising support for the National Democratic Alliance to be headed by Modi. There were problems in the initial stages of talks. The fractured image of the TDP and the BJP in Telangana and Seemandhra respectively has made it difficult for both to forge unity.

While the TDP has a comparatively stronger image in Seemandhra, the BJP is perceived as a national party which sided with the Congress in passing the Bifurcation Bill in parliament, thus acting against the perceived interests of the people of Seemandhra.

The reverse is the case in Telangana. The BJP has a better presence and image in Telangana, while the TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu is considered to be anti-Telangana. But the cadres and leaders of TDP are intact in Telangana. It would make an immediate political sense to have a tie-up both in Telangana and Seemandhra as Modi wave would help the candidates of both the parties in both the regions, it is felt.

The RSS leaders are very keen that the BJP should go it alone in this election. They have a feeling that the BJP is not allowed to grow in Andhra Pradesh due to the party’s friendship with the TDP.

Tagging to the TDP in Telangana this time, too, would mean that the BJP would not be able to field candidates in all the 119 Assembly constituencies and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies. If the BJP fields candidates in all the constituencies, and even if the party fails to win a large number of seats in the ensuing elections, a base will be formed for the party in all the constituencies. It will, hopefully, be further fortified in time for the next general election in 2019.

But many leaders of the BJP who are sure of contesting again are in favour of a tie-up with the TDP which has a strong presence among the BCs who constitute more than 60 per cent of voters in Telanagana. Utlimately, the view of the national leadership would prevail and Kishan Reddy and his associates would be asked to fall in line.