A tough and stubborn politician that he is, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has done a very hard bargain with the Bharatiya Janata Party and finally forced it to agree for the number of seats he has offered to them.
According to sources, Naidu told the party leaders through teleconference immediately after coming out of the talks with Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda on Saturday afternoon that the BJP had accepted the TDP offer of six assembly seats and five Lok Sabha seats.
He told them that he had to go in for an alliance with the BJP only because its cooperation was very much essential to rebuild Andhra Pradesh which he alleged had been totally destroyed in the last five years.
Naidu hinted that the announcement of candidates for the remaining seats, after leaving the seats allotted to the BJP and Jana Sena, would be done by Monday. The BJP and Jana Sena, too, would be finalising their lists by then.
He asked the party top leaders to talk to disgruntled ticket aspirants and convince them about the compulsions the party has in forging an alliance with Jana Sena and the BJP.
On Friday, the TDP president reportedly told his party colleagues during a teleconference from Delhi that the BJP was asking for a little too much from the TDP.
While Naidu was ready to give five MP seats to the BJP, Shah reportedly asked for 11 MP seats – half of the 22 seats left with Naidu after allotting three MP seats to the Jana Sena Party.
At the same time, the BJP is also learnt to have demanded 20 assembly seats. Moreover, the BJP is asking for those seats where the TDP is strong. But Naidu turned down the demand of the BJP, rather politely.