No consensus yet on seat-sharing between NDA partners in local body elections

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners were yet to reach a consensus on seat-sharing for the local body elections, even as the notification was issued on Wednesday.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) remained firm on their respective positions on the number of seats and posts to be contested.

It would take another “two days” to sort out the issue, though the parties announced that they would fight the elections as NDA.

Mayor posts have emerged as a major stumbling block in the negotiations. The posts in prominent municipal corporations, including Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Anantapur, Nellore and Vijayawada, are reportedly drawing the attention of the JSP and BJP, both of which are keen on securing a larger share of civic bodies and key positions under the alliance arrangement.

The BJP is seeking three Mayor posts. But TDP national president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has offered it one Mayor post and five municipal chairman posts, leading to a stalemate between the TDP and BJP.

Sources said that Mr. Naidu also turned down the BJP’s request for Nellore, citing its Muslim-dominated population and the party’s limited chances of winning there.

The TDP and JSP leaders held a meeting on Wednesday, but no tangible outcome was announced. The BJP leaders, too, gave no positive indication of a breakthrough following their meeting with Mr. Naidu.

“The seat-sharing arrangement will be finalised at another meeting, following which the alliance will announce its list of candidates,” said JSP MLA Bolisetti Srinivas, sharing details of the meeting.

The TDP and the JSP had reached a consensus to contest together during their discussions, he said, adding that care would be taken to ensure that the sentiments of both parties were not hurt in the seat-sharing process. Decisions on which party should contest particular seats would be based on local political conditions.

The alliance was yet to finalise the number of seats each party would contest. Details of the seats to be contested would be announced within two days, Mr. Srinivas said.