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The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telugu Desam Party have finally reached an electoral alliance in Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP has been dithering over an alliance with the BJP due to the latter’s staunch support for the division of Andhra Pradesh and creation of Telangana.
Two other political parties -- Jana Sena and Lok Satta -- are also part of this poll alliance.
The BJP will contest four Lok Sabha and 15 assembly seats in the Seema-Andhra region while in Telangana it will field candidates in 45 assembly and eight Lok Sabha segments.
As per the seat sharing arrangement, the Lok Satta Party will contest from the Malkagiri Lok Sabha constituency. The party will also contest three assembly seats from Telangana.
Jana Sena, headed by actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan, may also be allotted a couple of seats to contest from.
The TDP will contest from 29 Lok Sabha seats and the remaining assembly seats.
The electoral alliance was sealed after BJP leader Prakash Javadekar met TDP leaders C M Ramesh and Sujana Chowdhary. Members of the Lok Satta were also present at the meeting.
The BJP is looking to make its presence felt in Telangana.
The saffron party will field its candidates from Secundarabad, Medak, Nizambad, Hyderabad, Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Medak and Nizambad in Telangana.
Kishen Reddy, chief of the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit, is all set to contest from Secundarabad.
The BJP wants to field a strong candidate from Hyderabad against sitting Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
Reportedly, the party may field director Ram Gopal Verma from Hyderabad.
The party will field its Lok Sabha candidates from Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kakinada and Tirupathi in the Seema-Andhra region.
Image: BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu