Tie-up talks becoming more knotty for parties
HYDERABAD: With elections round the corner, parties in Andhra Pradesh are busy trying to forge alliances. If smaller parties are looking to latch on to the major ones, the latter are keen to accommodate the former so as not to lose even a single vote.
As part of this exercise, political debutant and actor Pawan Kalyan met BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on Friday. Sources said the Jana Sena chief has sealed a poll deal with Modi. Pawan has been demanding three LS seats -- Malkajgiri, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam -- and 25-30 Assembly seats in both Andhra and Telangana.
'I have explained to Modi the manner in which the state has been divided. I told him I did not come into public life for power,' he said.
'Differences between people of the two states will not be in national interest,' he added. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said in Delhi that alliances would be finalised at the earliest in Telangana and Andhra.
BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar, meanwhile, convinced the party's Telangana leaders that a tie-up with the TDP would be in the larger interests of the party. Though no Telangana BJP leader is interested in the TDP, sources said they have no choice but to fall in line.
Javadekar also held talks with the party's Andhra president K Hari Babu and concluded that a TDP-BJP alliance in Seemandhra would be mutually beneficial. In Seemandhra, the party wants seven Lok Sabha and 30 Assembly seats.
However, the TDP is unlikely to oblige the saffron party. The TDP leaders on Friday met at the residence of MP Sujana Chowdary and decided to offer to the BJP nine Lok Sabha -- the reasoning being that it deserves only three seats in Seemandhra and six in Telangana -- and 30 Assembly seats in Telangana and Seemandhra. Final discussions with the BJP are likely on Sunday.
On the other side of the spectrum, the CPI is trying to broker peace between the TRS and Congress even though the two parties had a public spat and vowed not to join hands.
CPI state secretary K Narayana met Telangana PCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah and tried to persuade him to reopen dialogue with the TRS -- this despite TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao blasting Lakshmaiah and even branding him a Seemandhra agent.
News Posted: 22 March, 2014
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