BJP-TDP alliance is a win-win for both parties

The Bhartiya Janata Party’s attempt to secure more than 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections got a major boost after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), along with the Jana Sena Party (JSP), decided to join the BJPled National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

-  ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The entry of the two parties into the NDA fold was announced in a joint press statement by BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan.

Sources aware of the development told The Sunday Guardian that the BJP is likely to contest on 5 seats, 3 are likely to go to Jan Sena, while the TDP will contest on the remaining 17. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TDP had contested on 21 and gave four seats to the BJP. The BJP had won on two, while the TDP emerged victorious on 15 seats.

In the Assembly elections, which coincide with the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP will contest on 6-8 seats, the Jan Sena on 22-24 and the TDP on 145. The Assembly has 175 members.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the TDP, whose seat share had come down from 15 that it got in 2014 to three, had retained its vote share of 40% that it had got in the previous election. Multiple surveys conducted by the TDP and other organizations have predicted the party will win a minimum of 17 seats.

By allying with one of the biggest political parties active in South India, the BJP has expanded the NDA and made the possibility of the alliance reaching the 400- seat mark more achievable, given that it had got the maximum number of seats it possibly can from the Hindi belt seats of North India and hence needs to target states, specifically those in southern part of India, where it has no or minimum presence.