The indications so far had been that Naidu himself wil go to the Capital to discuss the seat-sharing issue. But, he changed his mind and decided to depute two senior leaders for the first round of talks after which BJP leaders would be invited here for clinching the poll-pact.

Before that, the TDP president is expected to hold formal talks with the BJP state leaders who are sore that they were not taken into confidence on the issue.

Naidu held discussions with senior ministerial colleagues A Madhava Redddy and P Ashok Gajapati Raju, party general secretary S M Lal Jan Basha and TDP spokesman Ummareddy Venkateswarlu on Sunday.

According to sources, Basha and Venkateswarluare expected to be sent to Delhi for negotiations with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani. The emissaries will also be carrying a message from Naidu to the BJP leadership.

While the BJP state leaders have asked for about 12 Lok Sabha and 60 Assembly seats, Naidu is not ready to allot more than six Lok Sabha and 25 Assembly seats. The TDP chief may urge the BJP central leadership to convince their local leaders.

Vajpayee and Advani, who have been in touch with Naidu for the past few days, are understood to have drawn his attention to growing discontent among the state BJP leaders that they had been completely ignored in the alliance talks.

Responding to it, Naidu told them that he was ready to invite the local leaders once there was an agreement on the number of seats to be contested by each party. BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu too got in touch with Naidu over telephone before leaving for Delhi this evening.