Telugu Desam Party prunes BJP’s wishlist for seats in Assembly and Lok sabha elections

Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam has pruned the BJP’s wish list of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats, indicating that it is prepared for some tough bargaining. The TDP has offered the BJP 30 MLA seats and nine Lok Sabha seats (out of 119 and 17 respectively) in Telangana. In Seemandhra it has offered the saffron party nine Assembly and three parliamentary seats (out of 175 and 25).

The BJP has demanded 50 per cent of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 25 Assembly and six Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra. State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy had commissioned an independent survey of the party’s poll prospects, which had given a rosy picture of the party’s likely performance in Telangana. This has been sent to the party’s national president Rajnath Singh, PM candidate Narendra Modi and other top leaders of the party to use as a strong bargaining tool in Telangana.

In fact, Mr Kishan Reddy informed the party leadership that the BJP would perform exceedingly well in Telangana even without an alliance with the TDP.

“We are keen to forge an alliance with the BJP, but their demands are quite unreasonable. How can a party that is in the fray in just 10 per cent of zilla parishad seats demand over 30 per cent of Assembly and LS seats?” said a senior TDP leader.

The TDP believes that the BJP lacks the requisite strength and cadre in both the regions.

“They talk about Modi wave. Our own study says Mr Modi could have five per cent to six per cent vote bank in Seemandhra and one per cent more in Telangana. Whereas, the TDP has a strong base in both the regions. They should understand that,” the TDP leader said.