CM Naidu, Pawan begin seat-sharing exercise
In Short
Mayoral posts in 7 cities emerge as immediate flashpoints
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Pawan Kalyan and N Chandrababu Naidu
Amaravati: With the local body election process now moving into a potentially decisive phase, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan held an over two-hour meeting on Tuesday, turning the NDA's attention from broad electoral coordination to the more difficult question of who contests where. The meeting at Naidu's residence in Amaravati centred on seat-sharing between the TDP, Jana Sena and BJP, particularly in municipal corporations, municipalities and Zilla Parishads. The two leaders are understood to have reached a broad understanding on the allocation of several key municipal corporations, including major urban centres, with furthernegotiations expected with BJP leaders.
The timing of the meeting is significant. The Andhra Pradesh High Court has struck down the government's orders providing 34 per cent BC reservation in rural local bodies and 33.33 per cent in urban local bodies, holding that the enhanced quota could not be justified without the required empirical basis and directing the government and State Election Commission to commence the election process within six weeks. The government has since moved the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Against this legal backdrop, the NDA leadership is preparing for elections on the assumption that the process could accelerate once the Supreme Court proceedings provide clarity. The alliance partners are also maintaining their stated position in favour of 34 per cent BC reservation. Naidu has said the government would pursue the matter in the Supreme Court.
However, the political challenge for the alliance lies less in announcing a common strategy than in managing competing claims on the ground. Unlike the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, local body contests will be shaped heavily by local caste equations, individual candidates, existing cadre networks and the performance of sitting MLAs and ministers. TDP and Jana Sena cadres could seek the same seats, making vote transfer and campaign coordination a more complicated exercise.
The leaders discussed these potential friction points and agreed that differences should be settled immediately rather than allowed to spill into the campaign. A fresh field-level coordination mechanism is proposed alongside the existing six-member three-party coordination committee. While district-level committees have been formed, the alliance is considering constituency-level teams within the next few days to resolve cadre-level disputes and ensure joint campaigning.
The issue is particularly sensitive in the race for mayoral positions in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Nellore, Ongole and Tirupati, where the partners have overlapping political interests. The allocation of these urban battlegrounds is expected to require further negotiations, including with the BJP.
The existing three-party coordination committee has already held six or seven rounds of discussions. After meeting Pawan, Naidu separately met AP TDP president Palla Srinivasa Rao and water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu, who briefed him on the committee's deliberations and groundwork.
The alliance is now preparing for a compressed decision-making cycle. Naidu has scheduled a meeting with collectors, SPs and officials, while the three parties are expected to hold internal discussions this week on seat-sharing, committee appointments and campaign coordination. The immediate objective is to ensure that the alliance enters the local elections with a common seat-sharing formula before candidate-level competition and cadre rivalry turn into open contests within the coalition.
