TDP-BJP election alliance talks stuck in limbo

Hyderabad, Talks between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP over a poll alliance to the Lok Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh assembly, failed to make any headway here today, after the BJP insisted on at least 50 per cent seats in the Telangana region, TDP sources said here on Thursday.

The BJP reportedly asked for 60 assembly seats (out of 119) and eight to nine Lok Sabha seats (out of 17). It also proposed projection of a backward class leader as the chief ministerial candidate, which the TDP has already promised to do, a senior TDP leader said.

Conceding their demand for 50 per cent of seats is just not possible, but there will be further rounds of talks, the TDP leader said. No headway could be made after BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar conferred with TDP MPs Y Satyanarayana Chowdary and C M Ramesh here today afternoon to continue the talks from where they left it last week, he said.

Later, Javadekar left for Vijayawada to elicit views of local leaders over a possible alliance with TDP, he said. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is expected to confer with BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi soon, after which there could be clarity on any prospective alliance, the TDP leader said.

Sources said that since the BJP is upbeat, after it enabled formation of Telangana state by supporting the Bill in Parliament, the party wants to take full advantage of the situation and contest maximum number of seats in the region.

Initially, BJP leaders in the region were totally averse to any tie-up with the TDP, but agreed to an alliance, after intervention by BJP's central leadership, sources said.