Amaravati, Oct 16 (IANS) Partners in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Andhra Pradesh have reached a seat sharing agreement for Urban Local Body elections.
After several rounds of talks among leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the last four days, the allies finalised the seat sharing on Thursday night.
Initially there was a deadlock in the talks between TDP and JSP but both the parties adopted a give and take approach to reach an understanding.
The NDA partners finalised the seat sharing in line with the aspirations of their leaders and cadres at the field level.
As per the agreement for the posts of mayor for 17 municipal corporations, the TDP will contest 11 posts, Jana Sena four and BJP two.
The coalition also reached an understanding for the posts of chairpersons of municipalities/nagar panchayats. The TDP will field candidates for 78 posts while Jana Sena will contest in 21 places. Seven posts have been left for the BJP.
As per the agreement for all Urban Local Bodies, TDP has been allotted 72.35 per cent of the posts. Jana Sena got a share of 20.33 per cent and BJP 7.32 per cent.
If one ally gets the post of mayor/chairman, the other allies will be given the post of deputy mayor/vice-chairperson.
The TDP will contest for the posts of mayors of Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Mangalgiri-Tadepalli, Guntur, Ongole, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Tirupati and Chittoor.
Jana Sena has been allotted Srikakulam, Kakinada, Eluru and Vijayawada while BJP will field its candidates for mayors in Rajamahendravaram and Anantapuram.
The seat adjustment was finalised after several round of talks among top leaders of the NDA partners during the last few days.
Chief Minister and TDP National President N. Chandrababu Naidu, TDP state President Palla Srinivasa Rao, Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, state BJP President P.V. N. Madhav and other leaders participated in the talks.
The seat-sharing in local body polls is largely in proportion to the respective strength of the three allies 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 State Election Commission has already announced the schedule for the elections to urban and rural local bodies.
Polling for 100 urban local bodies is scheduled on October 28 while Gram Panchayats will go to polls in three phases in November-December.
Out of 123 Urban Local Bodies, the Commission has issued notifications for conduct of elections to 100 Urban Local Bodies (13 Municipal Corporations and 87 Municipalities/Nagar Panchayats).
Elections have not been notified now for the remaining 23 Urban Local Bodies (4 Municipal Corporations and 19 Municipalities/Nagar Panchayats) as the pre-election activities for them are underway.
–IANS
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