As the political heat is gradually picking up in Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party led by power star Pawan Kalyan who have already announced formation of an alliance, stepped up the negotiations for seat sharing.
According to the sources, the TDP and the Jana Sena Party leaders who have been discussing the seat sharing issue for the last few days have come to a preliminary understanding that the Jana Sena Party would contest in 30 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats.
This would leave the TDP with 145 assembly seats and 23 Lok Sabha seats to contest.
As per the initial discussions, the TDP has proposed to give 25 assembly seats to Jana Sena – on an average of one seat in each of 25 Parliamentary constituencies, but the Jana Sena wanted at least two seats for each LS constituency on an average, which means around 50 assembly seats.
However, after a series of negotiations, the Jana Sena Party agreed for 30 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats.
“The final tally will be announced after the meeting of Naidu and Pawan Kalyan on Saturday or Sunday,” sources said.
Interestingly, the TDP-Jana Sena Party combine have decided to wait for a final call from the Bharatiya Janata Party before making an announcement on seat sharing. The BJP might spell out its stand after seeing the outcome of Telangana assembly elections on Sunday.
The TDP has agreed to leave more seats to the Jana Sena Party in East and West Godavari districts where Pawan Kalyan has a lot of craze, apart from Visakhapatnam, parts of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Kurnool.
It has tentatively been decided that Pawan Kalyan will once again contest from Bhimavaram, while he might choose another constituency – Tirupati or Srikakulam to be on the safe side.
With regard to the Lok Sabha seats, the TDP might allocate Kakinada and Nellore or Kurnool seats to Jana Sena.
