Shah-Naidu meet today

Vijayawada/New Delhi: Political equations are fast changing in Andhra Pradesh and the political scenario of 2014, where the TDP-Jana Sena and BJP were in alliance is going to be repeated in 2024. (Hans India broke the news on February 1).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday called up TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu over phone and invited him to New Delhi for talks. Naidu is leaving for Delhi on Wednesday evening. He will be meeting Amit Shah at his residence later in the night. BJP national president J P Nadda will also participate in the meeting. It is being said that Pawan Kalyan may also join the talks on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Shah held meetings with party leaders to discuss the number of Lok Sabha seats and Assembly seats that the BJP could bargain for. It is learnt that the BJP may ask for about seven Lok Sabha seats -- Araku, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada or Rajahmundry, Eluru or Narsapuram, Ongole or Nellore, Tirupati and Anantapur or Hindupur. Similarly, it is likely to ask about 5-6 Assembly seats.

As far as the JSP is concerned, it is learnt that Pawan had asked for 32 Assembly seats but will agree for 25 seats in the wake of further adjustments that may have to be made with the BJP. Pawan, it may be mentioned here, has been making all-out efforts for an alliance between the TDP-JSP and BJP to avoid split in the anti-incumbency votes.

Sources say that once the alliance is formalized, the TDP-JSP combine would be part of the NDA and may also be part of the Union government in Modi 3.0 regime.

However, the TDP second rung leaders while welcoming this development say that it would be much more advantageous if the BJP comes with a formal announcement saying that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant disinvestment will not happen. It would help the state government in completing the Polavaram project and also extend hand holding in development of Amaravati as the capital. This will help in erasing the negative image among the people that the BJP was supporting the ruling YSRCP.