Tension mounts in BJP

• Speculations rife on Purandeswari’s candidature
• Yerneni Sitadevi to quit BJP

Tension continues in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over poll alliance and seat-sharing with the Telugu Desam Party as the elections are fast approaching.

The BJP leaders, who set eyes on the ticket this time and planning to cash in on the ‘Modi’ factor, are eagerly waiting for the party to ink the pack with TDP. While the TDP leaders are jittery over the alliance move as they might have to give up their seats following the alliance, the BJP leaders are eager to make it to the Assembly.

The BJP is asking for two Assembly segments in Krishna district, one in Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency limits and the other in the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency. In Vijayawada, the party is asking for the Vijayawada central Assembly constituency, which the party had represented in the past. The BJP had won from this segment in alliance with the TDP fielding actor Kota Srinivasa Rao, who defeated Ilapuram Venkaiah in the 1999 elections. The party is now staking claim for this seat.

However, the TDP is not ready to give two Assembly seats in the district and is asking the BJP to limit to one seat. The TDP is not willing to give this seat as it claims to have strong base here.

Instead, it is asking the BJP leadership to look for Kaikaluru segment, which forms part of the Eluru Lok Sabha constituency. This had watered down the aspirations of the leaders who set their eyes on city voters. Meanwhile, there is a raging debate on the candidature of former Union minister Daggubati Puradeswari for the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency.

The BJP leadership is firm on getting two out of the Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituencies, besides Kakinada and Narsapur. Sources said that the TDP had agreed to concede Narsapur and offered Eluru while rejecting Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada seats. It is said that Purandeswari is ready to contest from Visakhapatnam or Eluru or even Vijayawada. However, her priority is either Visakhapatnam or Vijayawada Lok Sabha seats, the party sources said.

The BJP’s indifferent attitude towards her candidature seems to have irked former minister Yerneni Sitadevi, who had joined the party recently. She had set her eyes on Vijayawada or Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituencies for this election. She re-entered active politics after a gap of more than a decade and is now getting ready to contest even as an independent representing the farming community. Sources close to the former minister told this correspondent that Sitadevi had already made up her mind to quit BJP and contest as an independent.