Pawan Kalyan’s party to contest 24 seats, rest Naidu’s TDP in alliance for Assembly polls

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan on Saturday announced their first joint list of 118 seats for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh.

The two leaders, however, said the seat allocation has been done keeping in mind the “need to accommodate” BJP in case the saffron party decides to join the alliance.

TDP candidates will be contesting from 94 constituencies while Janasena will contest from 24 seats, as per the first list.

“On this auspicious occasion, both TDP and Janasena are ready to go for the polls. I wish this news to be good tidings for everyone in the state. This union is for the future of the state. This is the first step for a great effort,” said Naidu, addressing a press conference at his Andhra Pradesh residence in Undavalli on the TDP-Janasena alliance.

Observing that the TDP-Janasena alliance “has the blessings of the BJP”, Kalyan read out the names of five Janasena candidates and promised to reveal the remaining 19 names in a couple of days.

Explaining the rationale behind the Janasena taking only 24 seats, Kalyan noted that it is important to take a lower number of seats than experimenting with a higher number of seats.

“We have to first put the state on the right track, keeping the future of the state ahead of individual and party prospects,” said the actor-politician.

Including the three Lok Sabha seats allocated for Janasena in the alliance, he noted that it is as good as the party contesting some 40 Assembly seats.

Meanwhile, Naidu highlighted that if the BJP also comes along with their alliance then those issues will also be discussed at the right time to take the right decisions.

“This alliance is for the future of the state, not for any two individuals or two parties. Both the parties took the decision to work together for the welfare of five crore people. This is a historic day for the state,” said Naidu.

For his ninth election, Naidu highlighted that he had done the most intense exercise of zeroing in on the candidates, unlike previously, even during the times of united Andhra Pradesh.

Taking the opinion of 1.1 crore people from various sources, Naidu said the 94 TDP candidates have been selected after a multi-pronged analysis and filtering.

He asserted that the selected candidates are people who are in touch with the masses, desired by people, approved by the people and who can ‘resiliently’ face the polls and opponents.

Further, the opposition leader observed that the TDP gave prominence to youth, women, those from BC communities and educated people in selecting candidates.

Out of the 94 candidates, Naidu said 23 are first-timers, three doctors, one retired IAS officer, 25 post-graduates, 51 graduates and three doctorates.

Naidu called on the Janasena and TDP leaders to cooperate with each other for mutual benefit wherever both the parties are contesting.

“Wherever Janasena is contesting the TDP should cooperate and wherever TDP is contesting the Janaseana should cooperate. Both should work with an understanding for creating belief in people and victory will be easy, nobody can stop us…,” Naidu added.

Seat-sharing arrangement for the remaining 57 of the 175 Assembly constituencies are expected to be announced soon.

As part of the alliance, Janasena will contest three Lok Sabha seats of the total 25 from the state.

TDP sources said currently discussions were underway with the BJP for a possible pre-poll alliance.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, Andhra Pradesh BJP chief D Purandeswari said alliances in the southern state would be decided by the party high command and as of now the state unit is gearing up its activities in all the constituencies.