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Politics in Telangana, where the State Assembly was on Thursday proposed to be dissolved, is poised for an interesting turn with the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) gravitating towards each other.
The State Congress chief, Uttam Kumar Reddy, said on Friday that his party was open to an alliance with the TDP. The TDP, which won 15 seats in alliance with the BJP in 2014, has been reduced to just 3, with most of them defecting to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The Congress, which had won 33 seats, now has a tally of 13 MLAs.
Terming the upcoming elections a battle between “the people of Telangana and the family of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao” (KCR), , Reddy appealed to civil society, employees unions, and student groups to align with the Congress and boot out the “corrupt” TRS regime.
The contours of the Congress-TDP alliance will only take shaper on Saturday, when the TDP chief and Chief Minister of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, holds a meeting with his party’s Telangana unit to thrash out its strategy. Already, the two parties have hammered out an understanding in AP.
Having exited from its alliance with the BJP at the Centre and in AP over the Narendra Modi government’s refusal to grant Special Category Status to the State, Naidu has steadily moved towards the Opposition, including the Congress.
The TDP, despite its sharply-declined in strength in the Telangana Assembly, still has a considerable cadre-base in the State. For the Congress, an alliance can only be a gain, though the modalities of seat-sharing can become a ticklish issue.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which has become KCR’s prime target, is in the process of firming up its candidate list.
However, in a setback to the party, former Speaker of undivided AP Suresh Reddy expressed his intention to join the TRS.
KCR kicks off campaign
A day after he set in motion the process of the Assembly’s dissolution, and announced the TRS’ first list of 105 candidates, KCR kicked off his election campaign at Husnabad in Siddipet on Friday afternoon. Lambasting the Congress for trying to meddle with his government’s developmental works, the caretaker CM said the Grand Old Party’s leaders had always looked to Delhi for orders. “They have been levelling baseless allegations on us with regard to irrigation projects,” he said.
Seeking re-election, he said, “We need your support to continue development and welfare programmes.”
KCR had on Thursday announced that he would address 100 public meetings in 50 days.
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