TDP-BJP tie-up for panchayat polls

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JUNE 20. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, does not rule out the possibility of reshuffling his Cabinet after conclusion of the upcoming panchayat elections.

Mr. Naidu dropped broad hints to this effect here on Wednesday when asked by presspersons to comment upon reports about likely changes in his team after the polls. He initially maintained that it was pointless to speculate on an event likely to take place two months from now, but significantly added that reshuffle was a continuous affair done once in two to three years. It could not be taken for granted that a Minister would continue in office for five years.

The Chief Minister said the performance of his party leaders in the panchayat elections would also constitute an input in taking a decision.

Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP formally agreed to forge an electoral alliance `to fight the Congress' in the coming panchayat polls.

At an hour-long meeting between leaders of the TDP and BJP at NTR Memorial Trust, both parties resolved to constitute three-member committees at the State level to coordinate the seat adjustments. Significantly, they decided to leave the seat adjustment talks for both Zilla and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs and MPTCs) to their respective district units.

The TDP, which already has a well-oiled organisational machinery, will entrust the task of seat-sharing negotiations to its district standing committees while the BJP will immediately constitute three-member panels in all districts for the purpose.

The ruling party was represented at the talks by the TDP president, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, Mr. Lal Jan Basha, Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Mr. T. Devender Goud, Mr. P. Prabhakar Reddy and Prof. Lakshmanna and the BJP by the Union Minister, Mr. B. Dattatreya, Mr. Venugopal Reddy, Mr. N. Indrasena Reddy and Dr. K. Lakshman.

The BJP leaders told reporters later that they had not pressed for allotment of a specific number of seats as they were confident that the district units of both parties would take a realistic view of the ground politics while sharing seats.

Thus, the question of dissatisfaction among its partymen as in the past did not arise now and the TDP and BJP would achieve a comfortable victory. They said that difference at the district- level over seat-sharing would be sorted out by the State committee. Mr. Venugopal Reddy said the BJP would depute three teams of senior leaders to Vijayawada, Cuddapah and Hyderabad and summon district leaders in the respective regions on June 22 and 23 to submit the list of probable candidates based on their `winnability.'

This would give a fair idea to the BJP leadership about its likely candidates when the State-level committees meet on June 24.

The TDP general secretary, Mr. Lal Jan Basha, and the party spokesman, Mr. R. Chandrasekhar Reddy, told presspersons separately that the ongoing exercise in the party to select the ZPTC nominees would not affect seat-sharing talks with the BJP.

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Section  : Southern States
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