Hyderabad: The state BJP leadership is sharply divided over an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party making it tough for the party’s national leadership to take a decision on this issue.
With the deadline for filing nominations less than 10 days away, and set to commence on April 2, ticket aspirants from the BJP and the TDP are worried by the lack of clarity and whether they will get the chance to contest or not. Even if the alliance is finalised, there will still be several problems to resolve later with the ticket aspirants from both the parties looking at both the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats simultaneously.
While there is no problem for a tie-up in the Seemandhra region, leaders in the Telangana region are opposing it, saying it will dent the BJP’s prospects since the TDP has a ‘negative image’ in Telangana.
In contrast, the BJP leaders in the Greater Hyderabad are pitching for an alliance with the TDP, saying that it would be difficult to win without the TDP’s support since there are a considerable number of voters from the Seemandhra region on the city’s outskirts. BJP national leader Prakash Javadekar, who was scheduled to address a press conference on Saturday evening to clarify the alliance issue, cancelled it abruptly as the party failed to arrive at a consensus with the Telangana and Seemandhra leadership.
Mr Javadekar has been holding a series of meetings with the leaders to finalise the BJP-TDP alliance. He held talks with TDP leader Sujana Chowdhary again on Saturday.
Telangana BJP leaders are also opposing the unilateral decision of TDP chief N. Chandrabau Naidu to name a backward class candidate for the chief minister’s post. They want the BJP to be given the option to announce the CM candidate since the BJP is stronger than the TDP in Telangana. They also want a majority of seats in Telangana, which the TDP is not willing to concede.
