TDP to join NDA again? Chandrababu Naidu meets Amit Shah, JP Nadda in New Delhi

Indian politician Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who is the president of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), met Home Minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda late Wednesday night.

After the meeting, speculations are rife that the political parties may join hands in Andhra Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls tobe held simultaneously in the South Indian state.

The news agency PTI reported that Naidu met Shah at the home minister's residence, with sources saying that Nadda was also present in the meeting. BJP reportedly believes that an alliance with Naidu will help the NDA do well in the state.

Citing sources, the news agency said that Naidu is keen on joining forces with the BJP party. If this happens, then it will be a major boost for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in Andhra Pradesh and the upcoming general elections.

This comes after Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joined NDA last month, snapping ties with the opposition.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently asserted in Parliament that his party will get 370 seats and the NDA will cross 400 in the polls to the 543-member House.

While talking about TDP, a senior BJP leader said his party is open to an alliance but it will all depend on how many seats the TDP, the main opposition party in the state, agrees to give it, especially for the Lok Sabha polls.

Both had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls together when Telangana was yet to be formally separated from Andhra Pradesh. The BJP had then fought three seats and won all of them out of the 42 seats in the united state.

Following Telangana's creation, Andhra Pradesh has 25 seats and the BJP is keen to contest on anywhere between six to eight seats, sources said.

The TDP had walked out of the NDA in 2018 but suffered majorly in the 2019 polls when it managed to win only three Lok Sabha seats and lost power in the state to the YSR Congress.

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Rumours of RLD joining NDA

There are also speculations that Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary is joining hands with the BJP. However, there is no confirmation on it yet.

TheSamajwadi Party (SP) an alliance partner of theRLD does not seem happy with the rumours.

The RLD and the SP announced their alliance for the Lok Sabha polls on January 19 with the former stating that the latter will leave seven seats in western Uttar Pradesh for its nominees.

Both the parties had contested the 2022 assembly elections inalliance as well in which the SP had won 111 seats while the RLD bagged eight seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the RLD was part of the SP-BSP alliance.

(With inputs from agencies)