TDP & Congress join hands to defeat BJP, urge opposition parties to unite

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday met Congress President Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah in the national capital on Thursday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi greets Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Photo: Congress

NEW DELHI: With just six months to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, opposition parties have stepped up their efforts to stitch a united front against the ruling Narendra Modi government. In the latest development, Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday met Congress President Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah in the national capital on Thursday. It was Naidu's second visit to New Delhi in less than a week. "We decided to meet in Delhi to chalk out a plan to protect the future of the nation," Naidu said after meeting Pawar. After his one-to-one meeting with the Congress President, Naidu said the need of the hour is for opposition parties to come together. "We are coming together, to save the nation. We have to forget the past, now it is a democratic compulsion to unite. All opposition needs to be one." Gandhi also reiterated Naidu's sentiment saying the idea is to defeat BJP. "We had a very good meeting, the gist was that we have to defend democracy and future of the country. So we are coming together to work, all opposition forces must unite." To a query on who would be the face of the non-BJP front,  Gandhi  said “our aim is to defeat the BJP.” The discussions were also held for an alliance for the 118-member assembly elections in Telangana slated for December 7. TDP and the Congress have been traditional rivals in Andhra Pradesh for several years and the carving of their new friendship has definitely surprised many. In the morning, Telangana's main opposition Congress party, decided to contest 95 Assembly seats and leave the remaining 24 seats for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other constituents of the grand alliance. Under the seat sharing agreement, the Congress has allotted 14 seats to the TDP while the remaining 10 will go to the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and the Communist Party of India, reported news agency IANS. The TDP, which won 16 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, was an NDA ally but quit the ruling coalition early this year over the Centre's refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. Naidu "coincidentally" also met senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here and briefly discussed the need to bring all non-BJP political parties together, PTI quoted TDP sources as saying.

Met with @PawarSpeaks ji and Farooq Abdullah ji in New Delhi today. pic.twitter.com/2s9j1CnCpM

— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) November 1, 2018

Naidu chief is playing the role of a "facilitator" to bring together all opposition parties to stop the BJP juggernaut in the 2019 general elections. On October 27, The TDP chief had met BSP chief Mayawati, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. Also, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav reportedly spoke to Naidu over the phone on Wednesday and the latter will visit Delhi every week to speed up the process of uniting opposition parties. Amid Naidu's outreach to the opposition leaders, AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at the chief minister saying the leader who supported BJP in 2002 during Gujarat riots and was a part of Modi cabinet when Akhlaq, Pehlu Khan and others were lynched is now acting as "saviour of secularism".