Ram Madhav is in talks with TDP leaders Ram Madhav is in talks with TDP leaders

Despite pressure from their respective state units to review their alliance, the BJP and TDP leadership is exploring ways to retain their alliance for the 2019 elections, sources said. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah said to be keen on continuing the alliance with the TDP led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has been in talks with TDP leaders during the weekend. Sources said there is unhappiness on both sides over recent developments, but leaders appeared to have concluded that continuing the alliance would serve both parties better.

“The TDP is an old alliance partner. The issues of contention are not political but developmental,” Madhav told The Indian Express. “Through discussion we are confident of addressing most of the issues. There is no reason to take it to a political level and start talking about peak up etc,” he said.

The TDP is the BJP’s biggest ally in the South but has been publicly expressing its displeasure over policy matters, especially funds for the state, including allocations in the Union Budget. Ties between the two parties have soured in the last three-and-a-half years over issues such as denial of special category status, delay in release of funds for the Polavaram project and insufficient funds for construction of the new capital, Amravati.

According to sources in the TDP, there is a “strong feeling” in the rank and file favouring snapping the alliance. The BJP’s state unit too wants to review the partnership, with a section of leaders seeking that the leadership explore a possible alliance with the state’s main opposition party, YSR Congress, which has mounted pressure on the state government for what it calls failure to get special category status.

Reports that the BJP could consider an alliance with the YSR Congress have, according to BJP leaders, left the TDP leadership worried. “Such reports seemed to have made the TDP soften its hard stand,” said a leader from the state. The BJP state unit had also mounted pressure on the TDP by organising protests against the government in Rayalaseema region. A meeting of the BJP in Kurnool last week came out with a ‘Rayalaseema declaration’ blaming Naidu’s rule for the backwardness of the region.

The BJP national leadership, however, does not want to be seen as a “bad alliance partner”, a leader state, pointing out that the 2019 elections could challenge the party. Although it has built a closeness with the YSR Congress as a “friendly party”, the leadership does not want to antagonise Naidu as of now.

The TDP, too, has challenges to meet. In 2014, in spite of its partnership with the BJP, the TDP vote share was only 2% more than that of the YSR Congress. The decision of Telugu actor K Pawan Kalyan, who had backed the TDP, to contest the elections on his own in some constituencies could also affect the party’s prospects. If the BJP allies with the YSR Congress, it could damage the TDP electorally, leaders have conceded.

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