Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties joined hands and officially announced their electoral alliance and seat-sharing in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.
After days of discussion, BJP will contest on eight Lok Sabha seats and 47 Vidhan Sabha in Telangana and five Lok Sabha seats and 15 Vidhan Sabha in Seemandhara region, sources have said.
Elections to 119 assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana are scheduled for April 30 while 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Seemandhra will go to polls May 7.
While the formal announcements were being made, TDP workers were raised slogans against the alliance outside the residence of party chief Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad.
The breakthrough in alliance talks came Saturday night after the intervention of the top leaders of the BJP and the TDP. At one stage, the talks appeared to have collapsed.
BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, Akali Dal leader and NDA co-convenor Naresh Gujral, BJP treasurer Piyush Goyal and Satish Jee of the RSS held talks with the TDP leaders at a hotel.
The TDP leaders who held the talks were Sujana Chowdhary, E. Dayakar Rao, Y. Ramakrishnudu, M. Narasimhulu.
Javadekar met TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu twice Saturday.
The TDP was initially reluctant to leave for the BJP more than 40 assembly and seven Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 15 assembly and four Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra.
The two parties reached the agreement as the delay was leading to rebellion in both the camps. The leaders and cadres of both the BJP and the TDP were mounting pressure on their leadership not to leave their strongholds.
—IANS