NEW DELHI: One of the founders of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP ) which left in protest against the Centre’s refusal to give special status to Andhra Pradesh- is set to return to the governing alliance.
Sources said BJP is favourably inclined to overtures from TDP which, at the receiving end of Andhra CM Jaganmohan Reddy’s dominance on home turf, is keen to return to the fold.

The return of TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu, who had left NDA earlier too but returned to the fold ahead of the 2014 polls, will require BJP to do a political tightrope walk. It has cordial ties also with Reddy, Naidu’s arch rival, who has refused to join the anti-BJP forces and regularly deployed his YRSCP contingent to help the BJP government come out of tricky situations in RS where the ruling party does not have a majority of its own.

But BJP managers feel confident that they would be able to find the balance and point to the Centre’s recent acceptance of Jagan Reddy’s demands for release of special grant of nearly Rs 12,900 crore for the Polavaram project.

The twin factors are also seen as driving BJP’s efforts to explore the possibilities of reviving old alliances and stitching new ones.
The approach has also led to re-engagement with another estranged ally, the Akalis, who pulled out of the NDA coalition to protest against the farm sector reforms.