Telugu Desam Party President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday, 1 February, said talks are still going on to bring "like-minded" political parties to take on the BJP in the general elections.
So far, four meetings were held with non-BJP parties and the parleys are still underway, he told reporters after a meeting of the Opposition parties.
On Friday night, Naidu met AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal amid ongoing efforts to cobble up a grand alliance of Opposition parties in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, met his Delhi counterpart at the latter's official residence here and discussed a host of issues. AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was also present there.
He shared a picture of him and Naidu that the Andhra chief minister had tweeted. Earlier in the day, Naidu had met opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in an attempt to bring together Opposition parties on a platform to take on BJP in the polls.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, NC leader Omar Abdullah, SP's Ram Gopal Yadav, BSP's Satish Chandra Mishra, DMK's Kanimozhi, Derek O'Brien of TMC, CPI's D Raja, CPI-M's T K Rangarajan, Manoj Jha of RJD, AAP's Sanjay Singh and RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary, among others, attended the meeting.
Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and A K Antony, Danish Ali of JDS and Sharad Yadav were also present in the meeting.
‘Democratic Compulsion for All Oppn Parties to Come Together’
Naidu said there is a "democratic compulsion" for all the Opposition parties to come together.
However, the political compulsion of each party at the state-level will be taken into account, while forming a united force to fight the saffron party in the Lok Sabha polls.
Keeping political compulsions into account, all the like-minded parties will come together to take on the BJP. We are still in the process. We are discussing...So far, four meetings are held.Chandrababu Naidu, TDP Leader said.
The motto is to 'Save India, Save Nation'. There have been instances of pre-poll and post-poll alliances, he said, adding that "let us see how things will shape up".
Asked about the meeting, the TDP chief – who broke away from the NDA last year – said the parties expressed concern over likely manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines and decided to approach the Election Commission on Monday on the matter.
Besides the EVMs, farmers and unemployment issues were discussed in detail in the meeting, he added.
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