NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders here.
It is learned that he discussed among other things the possibility of forming an alternative government at the Centre in the post-result scenario if the BJP does not get enough numbers to retain power.
Holding talks with the national leaders, the Telugu Desam Party chief told that the BJP-led NDA will get only 200 seats of the total 543 seats and the non-BJP front will get the rest.
He said that the anti-BJP coalition will stake claim to form a government if the numbers permit.
Naidu’s meeting with Congress and other opposition party leaders comes a day before the last leg of Lok Sabha election on Sunday during which 59 seats will go to polls in seven States and one Union territory.
Continuing his campaign to meet various leaders and sew up a non-BJP front before the announcement of Lok Sabha results on May 23, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu met Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati here on Saturday.
It is a pleasure to welcome Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri N Chandrababu Naidu Ji to Lucknow pic.twitter.com/B2SKJlG5PK
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 18, 2019
He held talks with Akhilesh Yadav for about 70 minutes at the Samajwadi Party office. Later Naidu went to Mayawati’s Mall Avenue residence. Senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra was also present there.
Mayawati greeted him with a bouquet while he gifted her box of mangoes. He had also gifted mangoes to Akhilesh Yadav.
His meeting with Mayawati also continued for over an hour.
In his meetings held separately with the two leaders, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is believed to have impressed upon the two leaders the need to keep the BJP out of power, if it did not get a majority on its own.
Sources said that he convinced both the leaders that their stature and respect would not be compromised in the proposed front.
Naidu had arrived in Lucknow after meeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi earlier on Saturday.
He had met CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday and had discussed with them the possibility of a tie-up in the post-result scenario.
TDP chief Naidu also met NCP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, CPI leaders S Sudhakar Reddy, D Raja, and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader Sharad Yadav.
Naidu’s efforts come ahead of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s proposed meeting of opposition leaders on May 23, the invitations for which have already been sent out.
Seven-phased Lok Sabha elections, which began on April 11, will conclude on May 19.
The 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly seats at stake in Andhra Pradesh went for polls simultaneously on April 11. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
With agencies inputs