TDP-BJP seat-sharing talks fail

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 3. The BJP will be engaged in `friendly contests' with its political ally, the Telugu Desam, in 135 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) following the failure of the two parties to reach an understanding on sharing of seats in 12 districts.

At the end of the tortuous negotiations spanning 10 days and lasting almost till the 3.00 pm deadline for withdrawing nominations on Tuesday, the TDP agreed to concede only 53 ZPTC seats in 10 districts as against 165 sought by the BJP throughout the State.

Sources said the dispute centred around the number of seats that the BJP should contest in Karimnagar and Mahabubnagar, where the party itself is strong since it has two MPs and three MLAs from these two districts. BJP leaders were of the view that the TDP should have given more seats in these districts and commensurately reduced the number in coastal districts. However, the local TDP leaders in Karimnagar stoutly resisted any such move and some aspirants even staged a dharna outside the party office.

The TDP finally yielded 11 ZPTCs in Medak, nine in Warangal, seven in Nalgonda, six in Rangareddi, four each in Nizamabad, Chittoor, Nellore and East Godavari, three in Anantapur and one in Khammam to the BJP. Apart from these, the BJP is contesting 44 seats on its own in Mahabubnagar, 22 in Adilabad, 20 in Karimnagar, 15 in Cuddapah, 12 in Guntur (12), 10 each in Visakhapatnam and West Godavari, seven in Kurnool, five in Srikakulam and three in Prakasam. The figures for Vizianagaram and Krishna were not available with the party.

The BJP president, Mr. C. Ramachandra Reddy, admitted that he was not satisfied with the result because he had hoped for an amicable settlement. Addressing a press conference along with senior party leaders - Messrs. V. Rama Rao, Mr. B. Dattatreya and Mr. N. Indrasena Reddy - he maintained that this development was not a setback for the TDP-BJP relations.

Mr. Reddy said the talks did not yield the desired results because the TDP's State leadership could not convince their district units of the need to concede more seats to the BJP.

Mr. Reddy expressed confidence that the BJP would perform well given the track record of the Vajpayee Government in allocating 60 per cent of the budget for rural development, launching innovative programmes like `gram sadak yojana,' kisan credit cards and pension scheme for agricultural labour.

The BJP, he said, would seek votes on the slogan of `water for every field and employment for every hand.' It would continue to mount pressure on the State Government to optimally utilise the Godavari waters for irrigating 40 lakh acres in Telangana, eight lakh acres in Rayalaseema and six lakh acres in north Andhra. In this connection, he welcomed the lift irrigation project across the Godavari at Devadula for which the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, had laid the foundation stone.

Facing a volley of questions, Mr. Reddy declined to be drawn into a discussion whether the TDP had been unreasonable or whether the BJP had been treated with due respect. All he said was that the seats conceded by the TDP were not commensurate with the BJP's strength.

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Section  : Southern States
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