Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss preparations for the upcoming local body elections. Minister Nara Lokesh also attended the meeting at Naidu’s residence in Undavalli.
The meeting reportedly lasted around two hours. The leaders discussed seat adjustments between the Telugu Desam Party, Jana Sena Party and BJP for rural and urban local body elections. They also discussed the distribution of mayor and deputy mayor posts in key municipal corporations.
The discussions come after the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the state government and the State Election Commission to begin the local body election process within six weeks. The court issued the direction on October 1 while dealing with petitions related to elections for panchayats and urban local bodies.
The High Court also ruled that the ongoing voter-list revision should not be used to postpone the local body elections. The court directed authorities to move forward with the election process under the applicable legal framework.
The NDA won 164 of the 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh in the 2024 election. The Telugu Desam Party currently has 135 MLAs, while Jana Sena has 21 and the BJP has eight. Reports indicate that the alliance may consider the parties’ Assembly strength while working out the local election seat-sharing formula.
The talks also focused on coordination among the three alliance partners. Leaders are expected to work on a common strategy once the State Election Commission announces the election schedule.
The BJP’s state leadership is also expected to hold separate discussions with Naidu on seat sharing. The final arrangement may also depend on local political equations and the strength of individual parties in different areas.
The upcoming local elections will cover both rural and urban local bodies across Andhra Pradesh. With the High Court setting a six-week timeframe to begin the process, the ruling alliance is now working to settle its internal arrangements.
The meeting between Naidu and Pawan Kalyan is therefore an important step in the alliance’s preparations. However, the final seat-sharing formula and allocation of mayoral posts have not yet been officially announced.