Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has almost finalised the alliance with Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan for the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Both Naidu and Pawan Kalyan are expected to finalise the seat-sharing deal in a week or two and go into the people for campaign as the elections are just around two months away.
Yet, a section of analysts is expressing doubts over the sincerity of Naidu in forging an alliance with the Jana Sena Party.
Having watched the use-and-throw tactics of Naidu in the past towards his alliance partners, one wonders whether he would really stick to his alliance dharma.
There is a talk that Naidu might leave a few seats, say around 25 assembly seats and five Lok Sabha seats to Jana Sena Party on paper, but one cannot rule out the possibility of the TDP chief encouraging his own party rebels to contest against Jana Sena candidates in some constituencies.
Being a bigger party compared to Jana Sena, the TDP will have more aspirants for party tickets. The allotment of some seats, especially where the TDP is strong, to Jana Sena will definitely cause a heartburn among the ticket aspirants in these constituencies.
Naidu cannot antagonise these aspirants, as they have the potential to defeat the Jana Sena Party candidates which would ultimately favour the YSR Congress party.
"So, in such seats, Naidu might give “B” forms to such aspirants on the pretext that it would only be a friendly contest. Such tactics were used several times in the past,” an analyst said.
So, Naidu will not hesitate to sabotage the prospects of Jana Sena candidates if he thinks the TDP can win such seats.
“However, he will do it only where the TDP has bright chances compared to the Jana Sena Party. Once the TDP gets more seats than the absolute mark, he will not hesitate to ignore Pawan Kalyan,” the analyst added.