NEW DELHI: Continuing to cast its net wide to enlist more regional partners for Lok Sabha polls, BJP has opened talks with TDP and Akali Dal even as it remains engaged with Rashtriya Lok Dal‘s Jayant Chaudhary for negotiations that could lead to one more defection from the stressed INDIA bloc.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, who left NDA in 2019, reached Delhi on Wednesday for what sources termed ‘exploratory’ talks. Accompanied by BJP chief JP Nadda, he visited home minister Amit Shah’s home around midnight. BJP had so far remained cold to TDP because of annoyance with Naidu as well as unstinting support from his rival, AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy. Talks with Naidu reflect a re-think, prompted by desire to have allies in geographies where it is not strong and an assessment that incumbency may have hit Reddy’s clout.
Nitish meets PM, Shah; says won’t leave NDA again
BJP is in touch with Akali Dal, which left NDA to protest against the farm bills, for a fresh tie-up, according to sources. Akali chief Sukhbir Badal is believed to have held preliminary talks with a senior BJP functionary for an alliance in Punjab where both parties have struggled to stay afloat.
The move will find support from many in BJP who held the alliance to be crucial for strengthening the Hindu-Sikh bond in the border state and had argued for the party to persevere with Akalis, a “natural ally”, even when their unpopularity had turned the tie up into a costly affair for BJP.
Sources also confirmed that talks with Jayant Chaudhary were progressing well with the scion of Jat patriarch, late Chaudhary Charan Singh, willing to settle for seats fewer than seven offered to him by Samajwadi Party on behalf of INDIA. Sources said a formal announcement was held up not so much because of the number of seats RLD wants to contest but because of specific seats it has claimed.
A flurry of negotiations took place on a day Bihar CM Nitish Kumar met PM Modi in what was their first meeting after JD(U) president dumped INDIA bloc and joined NDA last month and later reiterated that he woulnot leave it again.Kumar, who stayed away from Delhi even when serving as CM with BJP’s support, met home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda and is believed to have discussed a host of governance and political issues related to Bihar.
In brief remarks to reporters, Kumar recalled his association with BJP since 1995, before he broke ties in 2013, and said he might have left it twice but will never do it now. “Never now. We will remain here (in NDA),” he said.
The meetings came five days ahead of Kumar’s govt facing a trust vote in the assembly on Feb 12.
BJP and JD(U) contested 17 seats each in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while Lok Janshakti Party, now divided into two factions, contested six. NDA now also includes former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, who left NDA in 2019, reached Delhi on Wednesday for what sources termed ‘exploratory’ talks. Accompanied by BJP chief JP Nadda, he visited home minister Amit Shah’s home around midnight. BJP had so far remained cold to TDP because of annoyance with Naidu as well as unstinting support from his rival, AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy. Talks with Naidu reflect a re-think, prompted by desire to have allies in geographies where it is not strong and an assessment that incumbency may have hit Reddy’s clout.
Nitish meets PM, Shah; says won’t leave NDA again
BJP is in touch with Akali Dal, which left NDA to protest against the farm bills, for a fresh tie-up, according to sources. Akali chief Sukhbir Badal is believed to have held preliminary talks with a senior BJP functionary for an alliance in Punjab where both parties have struggled to stay afloat.
The move will find support from many in BJP who held the alliance to be crucial for strengthening the Hindu-Sikh bond in the border state and had argued for the party to persevere with Akalis, a “natural ally”, even when their unpopularity had turned the tie up into a costly affair for BJP.
Sources also confirmed that talks with Jayant Chaudhary were progressing well with the scion of Jat patriarch, late Chaudhary Charan Singh, willing to settle for seats fewer than seven offered to him by Samajwadi Party on behalf of INDIA. Sources said a formal announcement was held up not so much because of the number of seats RLD wants to contest but because of specific seats it has claimed.
A flurry of negotiations took place on a day Bihar CM Nitish Kumar met PM Modi in what was their first meeting after JD(U) president dumped INDIA bloc and joined NDA last month and later reiterated that he woulnot leave it again.Kumar, who stayed away from Delhi even when serving as CM with BJP’s support, met home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda and is believed to have discussed a host of governance and political issues related to Bihar.
In brief remarks to reporters, Kumar recalled his association with BJP since 1995, before he broke ties in 2013, and said he might have left it twice but will never do it now. “Never now. We will remain here (in NDA),” he said.
The meetings came five days ahead of Kumar’s govt facing a trust vote in the assembly on Feb 12.
BJP and JD(U) contested 17 seats each in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls while Lok Janshakti Party, now divided into two factions, contested six. NDA now also includes former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha.