Naidu meets Rahul in opposition unity push
Andhra CM also meets Pawar, Farooq for possible alliance
Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday and discussed a possible alliance for the Telangana assembly polls as well as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The seat-sharing pact in Telangana is also expected to a give fillip to the possibility of a tie-up in Andhra Pradesh.
“I had a good meeting today with Shri Chandrababu Naidu. Amongst other things, we discussed the issue of opposition unity. I look forward to carrying forward our dialogue and to working together in the upcoming state and general elections,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted after the meeting.
Naidu, a key member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) till March this year, parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the demand for granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh. In the past few days, Naidu has stepped up efforts to unite Opposition parties and form a grand alliance to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Earlier in the day, Naidu met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah in Delhi.
This is his second visit to the national capital in less than a week.
During his previous visit on October 27, the AP chief minister met Bahujan Samaj Party chief
I look to carry forward our dialogue and to work together in the upcoming state and general elections. RAHUL GANDHI, Cong president
Mayawati, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha and Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders D Raja and S Sudhakar Reddy.
As per preliminary details, the Congress has agreed to contest 90 of the 119 seats in Telangana, with the remaining 29 to be shared by the TDP, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and the CPI.
Naidu also met senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here and discussed about the need to bring all non BJP political parties together.
TDP leaders said Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav spoke to Naidu over the phone on Wednesday, asserting that the Andhra Pradesh chief minister will visit Delhi every week to speed up the process of bringing together all the Opposition parties.
Abdullah later told reporters at Pawar’s residence that the BJP has been attacking constitutional institutions. “Democracy is in danger. People are in danger,” he said, announcing that he, along with Naidu and Pawar, would convene a meeting of Opposition parties to take on the BJP.
“The country is going through a great crisis,” Abdullah said.
Naidu said the country was facing a lot of problems and the situation was “deteriorating day by day”. He said Opposition leaders wanted to discuss the issues confronting the nation.
“We will have a meeting in Delhi and then chalk out the future plan,” Naidu said, adding they were not coming together out of any greed for power. Pawar said institutions were being attacked. “If we work collectively to save democracy, we can save the institutions,” he said.