ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

BJP, TDP (Lakshmi Parvathi) reach accord for AP seats

In a dramatic development, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the NTR-Telugu Desam Party have reached an electoral understanding, under which, the BJP would contest 38 seats, leaving four seats to its alliance partner in Andhra Pradesh.

The NTR-TDP will contest the Srikakulam, Parvathipuram (ST), Bhadrachalam (ST) and Hanamkonda seats.

The announcement was made at a hurriedly convened press conference, addressed by NTR-TDP president Lakshmi Parvathi and BJP state president Bandaru Dattatreya.

While Parvathi maintained that her party had sacrificed its claim to 20 seats, only to defeat the ruling TDP, Dattatreya said the agreement was aimed at preventing division of anti-establishment and anti-Congress votes.

He said the BJP leadership had cleared the arrangement. His party would also take steps for withdrawal of the candidature of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha state president Premender Reddy, who filed his nomination from Hanamakonda.

Under the agreement, the BJP would also contest the Hanamkonda assembly by-election, leaving the Madhira seat to the NTR-TDP, polling for which would be held along with the second phase of the Lok Sabha poll on February 22.

Tell us what you think of this report