A special category status for Andhra Pradesh, Cabinet berths including for his son in the new government, and funds for the Amaravati capital city he had originally planned, will be among the key demands that N Chandrababu Naidu‘s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will make as talks commence over the formation of a BJP-led coalition government in the Centre.
Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) – second only to TDP in its heft in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – plans to leverage the 12 Lok Sabha seats it won to negotiate plum portfolios in the new Cabinet, including the coveted railway ministry, it is learnt.
Sources said the TDP supremo is likely to seek a special category status (SCS) for Andhra, an issue over which he had walked out of the NDA in 2018. The SCS will ensure the state gets most of the Central funds in the form of grants (which do not carry any interest) and industrial incentives, including tax exemptions, duty waivers, and GST concessions.
The TDP chief is also likely to seek additional funds from the Centre to restart the development of Amaravati as the state capital, a project which was stalled after Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress (YSRCP) stormed to power in 2019. Several buildings and apartment complexes built during Naidu’s regime between 2014 and 2019 lie vacant today, while civic infrastructure decays.
Naidu, who will take oath as the Andhra chief minister on June 9, intends to start developing the capital city.
Another demand that Naidu is likely to put forward is funds for the completion of the long-pending Polavaram project, a promise TDP leaders said he has made during campaigning in the run-up to the elections.
TDP insiders say he is also likely to seek key portfolios in the new Cabinet and even demand the Speaker’s post.
The other ‘man of the moment’, Nitish attended the meeting of NDA allies in the national capital, hours after sharing a flight with Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav. “It’s just a coincidence that the two leaders were travelling to Delhi by the same flight,” JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said.
The support for BJP will however come at a price. Unlike 2019, when the JD(U) won 16 seats but was offered a single ministerial berth, since the BJP was in majority on its own, the 12 seats it managed this time are far more valuable, party leaders say.
The party, sources said, has its eyes on railways, rural development and Jal Shakti ministries. Other choices could be transport and agriculture. “Nitish has held railways, agriculture and transport portfolios in the NDA government. We want our MPs to take up departments that can help develop the state” sources said.
The rural development ministry, the leader reasoned, could help boost rural infrastructure and economy. “And getting railways would of course be a matter of pride for Bihar,” he said.
Among the frontrunners for the potential ministerial berths are over half a dozen Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha JD(U) MPs. The party, sources said, will have to find a balance between accommodating an “upper caste, an OBC Kushwaha and an EBC leader”.
Those in contention include former JD(U) national president and Munger MP Lalan Singh, an “upper caste heavyweight”; Jhanjharpur MP Rampreet Mandal, an EBC leader; and Valmiki Nagar MP Sunil Kumar, from the Kushwaha community. Sitamarhi MP Devesh Chandra Thakur and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha could also be in the running, but Lalan Singh could have an edge because of his long-standing relationship with Nitish, sources said