With speculation rife that his party may return to the NDA fold ahead of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda either later on Wednesday or Thursday.

Sources said the TDP chief will seek clarity on an alliance, with the BJP so far choosing to be equidistant to both the TDP and its main rival in Andhra, the YSRCP. A close aide of a TDP leader accompanying Naidu to Delhi said the talks between the TDP-Jana Sena party (JSP) combine and the BJP have been on for some time. “The BJP has been demanding 8-10 Lok Sabha seats but the TDP is ready to give only 4-5,” he said.

Sources said while some leaders remain opposed to a tie-up, the top leadership of both parties is keen. In case of the TDP, while the JSP may be more profitable electorally, its leadership sees safety (read against probe by central agencies) in friendly ties with the BJP.

The TDP’s top leadership is also looking at “the larger picture”, and believes that a formal alliance with the BJP would lift its stature and make it equal to the ruling YSRCP. “Currently, YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy is helping or supporting the BJP. Once a TDP-BJP alliance is formally announced, he will be forced to take the BJP head-on in the state,” a TDP MP said.

For the BJP, a tie-up with the TDP would mean a win for the party in at least some Lok Sabha seats. “The optics would change. For instance, if the BJP contests even five of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in alliance with the TDP, it can hope to win at least 3 with the help of the TDP,” a source said.

Other BJP sources said the party was still watching the developments in the state, where the ruling YSRCP is trying to beat anti-incumbency by dropping or replacing several legislators. “Any discussion would be taken only after we make a firm assessment of the situation,” a BJP leader said.

Expanding the party’s footprint is crucial to the BJP’s goal of winning more seats than in 2019, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring in Parliament that the party would win 370 seats (63 more than last time). Since the party is virtually saturated in the North in terms of Lok Sabha seats, such big addition to its 2019 tally requires a good performance in the south.

The BJP was earlier seen as keen on an alliance with the YSRCP as well, but the party has shown no signs of joining the NDA for fear of it hurting its prospects among minorities.

Buzz around the TDP’s re-entry into the NDA has been around since July last year after the latter replaced its state chief Somu Veeraju with Daggubati Purandareswari, the daughter of former Andhra Pradesh CM N T Rama Rao, and Naidu’s sister-in-law. Veeraju along with other party leaders was opposed to an alliance with the TDP, seeing Naidu as “unreliable and opportunistic”.

An important constituent of the NDA, the TDP had walked out of the alliance in March 2018 over the fact that the state was yet to get Special Category Status.