Naidu–Pawan’s Local Polls Game Plan

Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan met Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday to discuss seat-sharing for the upcoming local body elections.

Pawan Kalyan attended the breakfast hosted by Chandrababu Naidu at his official residence at Undavalli.

Chandrababu Naidu’s son and Minister Nara Lokesh was also present during the breakfast.

Later, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan discussed the upcoming elections to rural and urban local bodies.

During the two-hour meeting, they repotedly discussed seat adjustments among partners in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The discussion between the national president of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jana Sena reportedly centred around the number of seats their respective parties will contest.

The two leaders also discussed sharing posts of mayors and deputy mayors in the key municipal corporations.

Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan also reported to have discussed the strategy of the ruling coalition for the civic polls and coordination among the allies.

They are reported to have agreed on the need for the coalition partners to move forward with a coordinated strategy after the announcement of the poll schedule.

The Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister felt that TDP, Jana Sena and BJP leaders should work together to ensure a clean sweep in the local body polls.

BJP state president P.V.N. Madhav is likely to meet Chandrababu Naidu separately to discuss the seat-sharing issue.

The allies are likely to agree to the seat-sharing in local body polls in proportion to their respective strength in the state Assembly.

The NDA, headed by TDP, had stormed to power in 2024 with a landslide majority. The coalition bagged 164 seats in the 175-member Assembly. The TDP has 135 MLAs, while Jana Sena and BJP have 21 and eight seats, respectively.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on October 1 directed the state government and the State Election Commission to begin the process for local body elections within six weeks.

It pronounced the orders on a batch of writ petitions relating to gram panchayat and municipal elections.

The court also dismissed a few petitions seeking a direction to the State Election Commission to conduct the local body elections after completion of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state.