New Delhi, Oct. 27: The BJP has decided to fight the municipal elections in Andhra Pradesh independent of the Telugu Desam Party, days after the chiefs of the two parties exchanged notes in Hyderabad.

This is the first time the BJP will be going it alone since it allied with the Desam in 1998 though it has kept its options open for future Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

The Desam, however, is still an ally of the BJP, former state party chief Seshagiri Rao said here today.

?At the state level, there will not be any understanding with the TDP. But we have given a free hand to the district units to decide whether to have an alliance or not in a particular district,? said Rao, a senior RSS pracharak.

The BJP apparently thinks an out-of-power Desam may not be of much use. Earlier, whenever the two parties had an electoral tie-up, the Desam was in power.

But the BJP still failed to bag a single seat of the nine it contested in the Lok Sabha polls and won only one of 27 Assembly seats this year.

The party controls 11 municipal councils and one corporation of the 115 councils and seven corporations across the 23 Andhra districts.

Sources in the Desam said its ally?s latest decision could be a ploy to divide secular and anti-BJP votes to its advantage. BJP strategists feel this way, the party could also have local understanding with parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, which was in the Assembly poll fray.

They also want to test the waters during the civic polls to see if the BJP can do without the Desam though there is no rupture in the alliance as was evident from BJP chief .K. Advani?s cordial talks with Desam counterpart . Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday.

Rao said ?local problems? had prompted the party to take the decision.

Another reason is the ?rebel? problem. As many as 21-22 rebel Desam candidates contested seats allotted to the BJP in the May elections while ?there was none from our side in seats allotted to them?, he said. ?The rebels caused immense damage,? Rao added.

The BJP is also launching -? again independently of the Desam ? an intensive campaign against the five-month-old Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government. It will focus on growing suicides by farmers. Till October 20, as many as 1,603 farmers and 100 weavers had killed themselves, the party claimed.

The BJP is tabulating suicide details at the village, mandal and district levels for the campaign, and seeking compensation for and rehabilitation of those affected.

State BJP chief Indrasena Reddy said the party is also planning an Andhra bandh on November 30, a dharna at the Hyderabad collectorate on November 8, and protest rallies on November 15 and 16 to highlight farmers? woes.