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TDP says 'yes' to a poll tie-up with BJP

Shireen in Hyderabad

After weeks of dithering, the ruling Telugu Desam Party has finally said 'yes' to a poll tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP politburo, which met for over two hours on Tuesday night, discussed the issue threadbare and unanimously ratified the decision to have an electoral understanding with the BJP.

Though Chief Minister and TDP president, N Chandrababu Naidu, did not address waiting presspersons, a party spokesman said the TDP was ready to leave ''not more than seven out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats'' in the state to the BJP.

However, he said, no decision had yet been taken how many assembly seats the party would be willing to concede to its ally.

Assembly and Lok Sabha polls are being held simultaneously in the state.

Chandrababu Naidu is understood to have told the politburo that he would get in touch the BJP's central leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and communicate the party's decision.

The TDP spokesman said that the politburo also finalised a list of candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha constituencies, pending conclusion of seat-sharing talks with the BJP.

The party has decided to renominate 9 out of the 11 sitting members of the dissolved Lok Sabha.

Two members - K Pydithalli Naidu from Bobbili and Ajmeera Chandulal from Warangal - were not willing to contest the Lok Sabha polls again. Instead, they wanted to seek election to the State Assembly from Mulug and Gajapathinagaram segments. The politburo conceded their request.

However, Chandrababu Naidu refused to consider similar requests from some other MPs of the dissolved house.

The party members, whose renomination has been cleared by the politburo, are Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader, K Yerran Naidu (Srikakulam); Speaker of the dissolved Lok Sabha, Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi (Amalapuram); N Ramakrishna Reddy (Chittoor); Bhuma Nagi Reddy (Nandyal); Malyala Rajaiah (Siddipet); Gaddam Gangareddy (Nizamabad); Dr S Venugopala Chary (Adilabad); C Suguna Kumari (Peddapalli); and Chada Suresh Reddy (Hanamkonda).

"The politburo has finalised the candidates as well as their dummies (alternative candidates) for the 42 Lok Sabha seats. We will announce the list either on Wednesday night or Thursday morning," the TDP spokesman said.

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