Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s proposal to the partners of yet-to-be formed “grand alliance” for formalising a coalition and approach President Ram Nath Kovind to stake claim for the formation of government in the event of a hung parliament seems to have no takers.
For the last three days, Naidu has been running from pillar to post to bring all anti-BJP parties under one umbrella, has been brainwashing them for forming a formal alliance and draft a common minimum programme.
He has been telling them that if the alliance is not formalised and does not give the impression that they are one group, then if there is a hung assembly, the President will naturally invite the BJP to form the government, as it will be the single largest party.
“And if the BJP forms the government, it will try to poach the MPs from various other parties and gain the majority,” he told them.
Naidu, who rushed to Kolkata to meet Mamata Banerjee on Monday evening, put forth the same proposal before her. From there, he is going to Delhi to meet the other party leaders again and convince them.
“After arriving at the consensus, leaders of all the friendly parties will together decide on the proposal to meet the President and submit a representation to him to acknowledge the grand alliance as a single entity,” he told reporters at Amaravati.
However, the exit polls declared on Sunday night dampened the spirits of the alliance partners. They feel it would be premature to form the alliance without actually knowing how many seats they would get and if the alliance does not get sufficient numbers, they would become a laughing stock.
Even the Left parties have not agreed with the idea. Yet, Naidu is making a desperate attempt to form the Maha Ghatbandhan.
