Hyderabad, May 12
After the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), it is now the turn of Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to be wooed by the BJP to bolster its post-poll prospects.
The saffron party was understood to have opened a channel with Naidu, who is presently a key player in the Third Front, for enlisting his support for the NDA in the post-poll scenario.
Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu flew down to the city today on an apparent mission to bring the TDP into the NDA fold. The regional party was earlier a long-standing ally of BJP for seven years and had extended outside support to the NDA government from 1999 to 2004. However, after losing power in the previous elections, the TDP severed its links with the saffron party.
“Any party which is willing to support LK Advani’s leadership and support NDA is welcome,” Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here.
However, he evaded questions about the
negotiations with the TDP leadership. He neither confirmed nor denied the plans to meet Chandrababu Naidu to explore possibility of reviving alliance between the two parties.
“There are a number of people inclined towards us but we do not want to name any party or any leader at the moment. We will wait till the time the elections are over and counting is over,” the BJP leader said.
Emboldened by TRS’ decision to join the NDA camp, the BJP leadership has launched a drive to woo as many regional parties as possible to further its prospects.
“We see a clear possibility of the TDP gravitating towards us as Third Front will be a non-starter. Since anti-Congressism forms the core ideology of the TDP, it is bound to support NDA in the post-poll scenario to prevent UPA from coming to power,” the Andhra Pradesh BJP president B Dattatreya said.
Even before the declaration of poll results, the Third Front showed signs of disintegration with he TRS attending the Ludhiana rally of the NDA and openly declaring support for BJP-led coalition.
Justifying his party’s decision to attend the NDA rally despite being part of the Third Front, the TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said his party had already declared that it would sail with party or formation which would support creation of separate Telangana state.
“Our only goal is to achieve statehood for Telangana. We will back any party that will help in reaching the goal,” Rao said.
However, he made it clear that the TRS would continue to remain part of the opposition Grand Alliance (GA), comprising TDP, CPI and CPM, in AP.
