Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
The Jana Sena Party led by actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan also joined the alliance.
“I wholeheartedly welcome the decision of [Telugu Desam Party chief] N Chandrababu Naidu and [Jana Sena Party chief] Pawan Kalyan to join the NDA family,” BJP president JP Nadda said in a social media post. “Under the dynamic and visionary leadership of PM Narendra Modi, BJP, TDP and JSP are committed to the progress of the country and the upliftment of the state and people of Andhra Pradesh.”
The details of the seat-sharing agreement between the three parties for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls were not immediately clear.
The Assembly polls in the state will be held simultaneously to the general elections. The Election Commission has not yet announced the dates for the polls. But the voting is expected to happen in April and May.
The development comes after Naidu met with BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday.
“Our party national president N Chandrababu Naidu had a meeting with [BJP leaders] Amit Shah and JP Nadda along with [Jana Sena party chief] Pawan Kalyan and came to an understanding that TDP is joining the NDA,” Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar had said earlier on Saturday. “Jana Sena is already part of NDA and will contest the upcoming 2024 elections in Andhra Pradesh in alliance.”
The Telugu Desam Party was part of the National Democratic Alliance from 1998 to 2004 and then between 2014 and 2018. In March 2018, the party had quit the alliance citing the BJP-led Union government’s refusal to grant Andhra Pradesh special category status.
In the 2019 state election, the Naidu-led party had lost to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party. The Telugu Desam Party had won just 23 seats in the 175-member Assembly. Kalyan’s Jana Sena party had won one seat.
The party had managed to win just three of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The remaining 22 were won by the rival Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party.
The BJP had failed to win a single Assembly or Lok Sabha seat in the state.
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