BJP decision on tie-up with TDP, JSP after NDA meet

Vijayawada: The BJP is likely to announce its decision regarding the alliance with TDP and Jana Sena in the next three or four days. An announcement of TDP joining NDA is also likely next week when Prime Minister Narendra Modi convenes a meeting of all NDA partners.

This meeting would be held ahead of the poll notification which is expected on March 13 or 14.

According to BJP sources in Delhi, the party national leaders like party chief J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Shivprakash and others had several rounds of meetings with state leaders. Rajnath Singh and other party leaders visited the state and ascertained the ground situation as well as the opinions of the local leaders on the advantages of having alliance with TDP-Jana Sena.

While a few leaders like Somu Veeraraju are said to have expressed the opinion that the party should go alone, majority were of the view that alliance would be beneficial particularly since the party aims to win 370 seats in the Lok Sabha.

They told the central leadership that on its own BJP does not have the strength to win any Assembly seat or Lok Sabha as it has less than one percent of vote share.

The party high command is also said to be favourable for an alliance. It may be recalled that Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan also had put in a lot of effort over the past six months to convince the BJP high command that there should be TDP, JSP and BJP to avoid a split in anti-incumbency votes.

This issue had come up for discussion in New Delhi at the central election committee meeting of the BJP held on Thursday where clear signals were sent that they are in favour of an alliance. The only issue that needs to be finalised is regarding the number of Assembly seats and Lok Sabha seats they would get.

Sources said while the BJP was ready to accept whatever Assembly seats TDP-JSP would suggest but they want to contest in at least six Lok Sabha seats. The TDP also does not seem to be averse to this proposal.

Meanwhile, the party national leader Shiv Prakash is once again in Vijayawada and held consultations with state leaders, including the state president D Purandeswari. According to Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh, a clear picture would emerge in the next three to four days.