BJP says no alliance with TDP, will contest alone in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said the party would fight April 30 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the region alone, indicating that talks with Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party over sharing of seats have failed.

While announcing the party's decision to go solo, Telangana unit BJP president G Kishan Reddy said the central leadership would take a final decision in this regard.

"We have decided to go alone but if our central leadership wishes, they can have further talks with TDP for an alliance," Reddy said after a meeting of Telangana BJP's election committee meeting on Saturday night.

BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar attended the meeting.

The BJP would contest all the 17 Lok Sabha and 119 Assembly seats in Telangana region, Reddy said, adding they have already identified the candidates.

"As far as we are concerned, talks with the TDP have ended. We have now decided to fight the elections on our own," he said.

From the beginning, the Telangana leadership of the BJP had been averse to having any alliance with TDP. However, BJP's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi had invited the regional party to back the NDA once again.

TDP responded positively and came forward to realign with BJP.

Several rounds of talks were held between TDP and BJP leaders in the last few days over sharing of seats.

Assuming that its support for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and also the "Modi wave" would result in a windfall in Telangana region, the BJP demanded it be allotted 70 Assembly and 11 Lok Sabha seats and wanted to name its own chief ministerial candidate.

The TDP, however, was not ready to concede BJP's demand as the former hoped for a resurgence in the state.

During talks with BJP leaders, TDP finally offered the saffron party 35 Assembly and 8 Lok Sabha seats, including Hyderabad, but the former insisted on 45 Assembly and 9 Lok Sabha seats.

This resulted in a stalemate with BJP leaders saying the alliance plan has "failed".

The BJP leaders reportedly told their TDP counterparts that there would be no more talks at the state leadership level and anything should now be decided by their respective top leaders.