The seat-sharing conundrum between Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena drags on indefinitely even as the election fever is catching up in Andhra Pradesh. The dilemma continues even several weeks after announcing the formation of a coordination committee to chalk out the modalities for this exercise.

The fact that the two parties not being able to make any headway in this regard is turning their cadres restive, particularly the Jana Sainiks.

While the ruling YSRCP of YS Jaganmohan Reddy is proactively forging far ahead with a series of its candidate lists, there is still no clarity in the TDP-Jana Sena camp on the number of seats to be shared and supported. This is increasingly being seen as a big sign of the opposition combine’s weakness in facing the formidable ruling party in the 2024 elections.

Consequently, it is also creating an added advantage to the YSRCP in the larger perception battle with people viewing this as a fight between a ‘diffident TDP-Jana Sena and a supremely confident YSRCP’. The inability of CBN and PK to gather courage on picking their seats and announcing candidates also ironically pales in contrast to their all-out anti-Jagan campaign, only promoted in the yellow media.

Pawan Kalyan pompously announced his party’s poll alliance with the TDP right outside the Rajahmundry Central Prison when Chandrababu Naidu was lodged in the skill scam case. A coordination committee was subsequently formed to formalise modalities. But, a few such initial meetings ended in brawls between the ticket aspirants of the two parties. These incidents exposed a deep distrust between them and proved the fact that the cadres and local leaders were in no mood to come together even after their bosses ordered.

While the confusion remained, Chandrababu Naidu has been driving the wedge deeper into the anguish of Jana Sena leaders. The wily TDP veteran has been unilaterally announcing his party’s candidates for a few constituencies during some of his ‘Raa Kadali Raa’ meetings. Obviously, this has rubbed salt on the already bruised egos in Jana Sena as it betrays the spirit of the so-called coalition dharma.

Naidu’s move, even before any seat-sharing agreement, comes at a time when the Jana Sena leaders — if not their chief Pawan Kalyan — are hell-bent on a share of 50-60 Assembly seats and five Lok Sabha constituencies.

There is already a strongly pervading suspicion that the TDP would backstab their party in the end game and Chandrababu Naidu would only eventually force them to settle for less than 15 Assembly seats.

What took this feud to a flashpoint was Naidu’s recent announcement of TDP candidates for Araku and Mandapeta. Under pressure, Pawan Kalyan too was compelled to declare that Jana Sena would contest from Razole and Rajanagaram Assembly seats. The Jana Sainiks touted this as a ‘tit-for-tat’ move while the discerning political observers only saw a public posturing in it, largely designed at placating the anger within his own cadre.

Both Naidu and Pawan Kalyan had already held several meetings but nothing concrete came out of them. Now, they are likely to hold more discussions in the next few days with the intention to hammer out a solution before the election notification is issued. There are fears however on the ground that the task on hand is easier said than done as neither the TDP nor Jana Sena is willing to give away too much leeway to the other.