Chandrababu likely to meet senior BJP leaders in Delhi to bolster alliance: Sources

Sources said both the parties have had differences over the number of seats the BJP will fight in a state where it does not have much presence

New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu may meet senior BJP leaders here as the ruling party looks to bolster its alliance with an eye on its goal of scoring a bigger win in the Lok Sabha polls.

Naidu is expected to reach the national capital on Thursday and may hold a meeting with BJP leaders to finalise the seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls, which are held simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh, sources said.

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The development comes amid growing indications that the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal, which is in power in Odisha, are on the verge of finalising their alliance as the senior leaders of the two parties held separate meetings on Wednesday and dropped hints of such a possibility.

Naidu had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda in February, bolstering speculation that they are headed for an alliance even though things have not crystallised so far.

Sources said both the parties have had differences over the number of seats the BJP will fight in a state where it does not have much presence.

Actor Pawan Kalyan-headed Jana Sena Party, which has been a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, has already joined hands with the TDP and has been urging the national party to follow suit.

The state has 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly seats and the BJP is keen to contest on anywhere between eight to 10 parliamentary constituencies. A TDP leader said his party believes that giving “too many” seats to the BJP will hand over an advantage to the state’s ruling YSR Congress.

What has complicated matters for the BJP is that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, the president of the YSR Congress, has been unambiguously supportive of the Modi government’s agenda in Parliament and shares a good personal rapport with its senior leaders.

However, several state BJP leaders are supportive of an alliance with the TDP and claim that the Reddy government’s agenda is hostile to their party’s long-term interests.