Lok Sabha elections: N Chandrababu Naidu, Amit Shah & JP Nadda discuss TDP-BJP alliance

N Chandrababu Naidu/ File pic

On Saturday, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president held a second round of talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda to finalise their alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

With both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections coming for Andhra Pradesh, the TDP and BJP are attempting to formalise their alliance, reported PTI.

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According to the report, rebel YSR Congress Party MP K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju expressed confidence that an official announcement about the partnership would come soon. Raju emphasised the importance of combining the BJP, TDP, and Jana Sena Party to unseat Andhra Pradesh's present ruling party, led by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Naidu, the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan met with Shah and Nadda on Thursday, the report added.

On Friday, senior TDP leader and Rajya Sabha MP K Ravindra Kumar said that the BJP, Jana Sena, and TDP have formed a preliminary agreement to collaborate for the 2019 elections, with further specifics still being worked out.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also convened a late-night meeting on Friday with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to deliberate on seat-sharing for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

According to agency reports, the meeting which was conducted at Amit Shah's apartment in New Delhi began around 7 pm following that CM Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar were seen leaving Shah's residence at 12:45 a.m. following the discussions.

The conversations were mostly about seat distribution within the Mahayuti Alliance in Maharashtra, which includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit Pawar. JP Nadda, the BJP's national president, and Praful Patel, its state president, both attended the meeting, the reports stated.

The agency report further stated that prior to the meeting, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that he was confident about the unity within the Mahayuti alliance and that talks over seat distribution were still going on and should be finished soon.

"Everything is going well between the three parties of our alliance," Fadnavis gave an assurance and added, "There was an impasse on two or three seats, but that discussion is still ongoing and will shortly be resolved as well."