The BJP may soon finalise a seat-sharing deal with Jayant Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal as the ruling party looks to further strengthen the National Democratic Alliance amid indications that it is open to reviving its ties with former allies such as Telugu Desam Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Sources the BJP’s alliance talks with the RLD are in an advanced stage. The BJP is willing to offer two Lok Sabha seats, including Baghpat which is currently represented by its MP Satya Pal Singh, to the RLD and may also give it a Rajya Sabha seat, they added.
The sources said the BJP is working to ensure that the NDA gets as stronger as possible ahead of the polls so that it realises the target of crossing 400 seats as spoken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha recently. Modi had expressed confidence citing the popular mood that the BJP alone will definitely get 370 seats in the 543-member House. A lot depends on whether the BJP and its prospective allies agree to an amicable seat-sharing formula but there have been positive developments, the sources added.
TDP president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had met Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday. The Akali Dal had been among the BJP’s oldest allies but snapped severed its ties to protest the farm laws, which were later repealed following farmers’ protests, especially in Punjab and parts of Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
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