Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu had a brainstorming session on the key issues pertaining to the formation of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre with the newly-elected Members of Parliament of his party in Amaravati on Thursday.
With its 16 MPs, TDP had already pledged its support to the new NDA Government to be formed at the Centre with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister along with Jana Sena Party of Pawan Kalyan which won two seats.
Coalition at play
The BJP won in three Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh.
This gave the NDA Front 21 out of 25 as YSRCP secured four seats. According to party sources, Naidu touched upon a host of issues including the modalities of taking part in the new Government at the Centre and the number of berths the party could seek for itself and the matters concerning overall representation from the State for the NDA Alliance partners from Andhra Pradesh.
While Naidu is keeping his cards close to the chest, the insiders in the party feel that TDP could negotiate for three to five key berths in the Union Cabinet keeping in mind the need to accommodate other members from Jana Sena in Modi’s new Ministry.
However, clarity is likely to emerge only after the NDA MPs’ meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi on Friday. Naidu and Pawan Kalyan are likely to leave for New Delhi late evening on Thursday.
Naidu’s Fourth Oath
Chandrababu Naidu will take oath as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth time on June 12. Though matters of forming a new cabinet in the State did come up, Naidu is focussing more on NDA matters at Centre for now.
Jana Sena President Pawan Kalyan had already announced that his party — which had a pre-poll pact with TDP and BJP — will take part in the new government in the State.
While there are rumours of him seeking the post of Deputy Chief Minister in political circles, so far no official information is available.
The TDP-JS-BJP Front won 164 seats in the State Assembly out of the total 175 seats.
The TDP and JS won 135 and 21 seats respectively while BJP won in eight constituencies.