A crucial meeting of the Telugu Desam Party got underway on Sunday at Amaravati to decide the party's future course of action with regard to its alliance with the BJP, in view of the meagre, almost negligible, allocations to AP projects in the Union Budget and the subsequent outrage in the general public as well as in political circles.

The Telugu Desam Party members of Parliament, senior party leaders, state ministers and others are meeting at Amaravati, with Chief Minister and party president N. Chandrababu Naidu in the chair, to take a crucial decision on whether ties with BJP should be continued or not.

The opposition parties - the Congress and the two Communist parties - are targeting both the TDP and the BJP for "the betrayal of the people of the state, promising a lot and delivering virtually nothing after the bifurcation." These parties - the Congress and the Communists - have no representation from the state in the Assembly or the Lok Sabha.

The YSR Congress Party, the main opposition party in the state with representation in the Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, is going soft on the BJP and is severely critical of the TDP, amid rumours that it has struck up a tacit understanding with the BJP. YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy is facing trial in more than 10 criminal cases relating to economic offences. Telugu Desam leaders allege that the YSR Congress is seeking to strike an alliance with the BJP to get relief in these cases.

In these trying circumstances, the TDP is faced with a difficult choice - to continue ties with the BJP or to break them. Either way, it is going to be tough for the party as well as the state government, as elections are scheduled to be held early next year.

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