After talks between the BJP and TDP over sharing of seats in Andhra Pradesh hit a deadlock, the BJP’s Central Election Committee will meet on Monday to decide if it should go it alone in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Both sides are making last-ditch efforts to save the situation.
While senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu indicated that the BJP will contest the upcoming polls on its own if the TDP failed to spell out its stand within 24 hours, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was in touch with BJP chief Rajnath Singh and senior leader Arun Jaitley to end the deadlock on seat sharing.
Admitting that a stalemate in talks continues with the TDP on seat sharing in both Telangana and Seemandhra, Venkaiah said the party’s CEC will meet on Monday in New Delhi to decide the future course of action. Venkaiah said the BJP cannot wait inordinately on its future course of action.
“As a precaution I have already told both units of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to be ready to contest all the seats if necessary. Or to be ready if there is some sort of understanding to make seat adjustments also,” Venkaiah told reporters here.
Meanwhile, reports said that Chandrababu Naidu was in direct contact with the BJP president Rajnath Singh and another senior party leader Arun Jaitley. The issue of seat sharing with the BJP came up for discussion at the Telugu Desam politburo meeting on Sunday.
A senior TDP leader S Chandramohan Reddy told the media on Sunday that talks with the BJP will continue for a day or two more. Significantly, Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy has also said that any future talks between the TDP and the BJP will be only at the level of national leadership.
As the talks of a three-member Telangana TDP panel l Ramana, E Dayakar Rao and M Narasimhulu with Kishan Reddy and BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar failed to make headway, Rajnath Singh spoke to G Kishan Reddy and Seemandhra unit president K Haribabu over phone.
According to the sources talks broke down after the final offer made by the TDP failed to meet the demand of the BJP. While the BJP was demanding 45 Assembly seats and nine lok Sabha seats in Telangana, TDP said it was willing to give only 31 Assembly and seven lok Sabha seats. Similarly, the TDP’s offer of 20 to 25 Assembly seats and three lok Sabha seats left the Seemandhra unit of BJP highly disappointed.
K Haribabu urged the national leaders of the party to reject the TDP offer and go it alone in the elections as the situation was highly favorable for the party. After the talks with the TDP panel, G Kishan Reddy told the Telangana BJP State Election Committee on Saturday night that the party should press ahead with its preparations and contest all the seats in the region. “The party will release the first list of candidates by Ugadi,” he told reporters after the meeting.