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Congress hints at possible poll-deal with TDP, decision likely this week
The Congress in Telangana indicated that it was not against forging an alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party.
The Congress in Telangana indicated on Thursday that it was not against forging an alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, which could take a call on the possible alliance in a couple of days.
In the wake of fast-paced political developments in Telangana, where chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the state assembly amid a buzz of early elections, leaders of the TDP rushed to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for talks with party chief Naidu
Amid growing speculations, Telangana Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said, “We are not averse to joining hands with any democratic force or party, including the TDP, to pull down the KCR government.”
Andhra CM Naidu, an ally-turned-rival of the Bharatiya Janata Party, will have a meeting with Telangana TDP leaders in Hyderabad on September 8, according to news agency Press Trust of India. “We will decide on alliances after that,” TDP general secretary E Peddi Reddy told reporters.
In the 2014 Telangana state elections, the TDP, which has formed in 1982 with an anti-Congress stand, was in alliance with the BJP. It had won 15 seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly, but 12 of its MLAs later defected to Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samiti, while another joined the Congress.
During the TDP’s annual conclave ‘Mahanadu’ in May, Naidu announced his party would emerge as a decisive force in Telangana. The TDP, though primarily an Andhra-based party, still has a considerable vote bank in Telangana, especially in areas such as Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Karimnagar and Khammam districts, where people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have settled down.
With the TDP’s help, the Congress will look to tap the support of the Seemandhra settlers in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, which account for nearly 24 assembly seats.
A TDP source said, “Both parties (the Congress and the TDP) are expected to strike a deal on September 8, when Naidu will be in Hyderabad to attend the 10th day ceremony of his brother-in-law and former MP Nandamuri Harikrishna, who died in a road accident in Nalgonda recently.”
A Congress leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy had held talks with state TDP president L Ramana and others in the presence of senior leaders in Hyderabad on Wednesday night. “The talks remained inconclusive,” he said.
Of late there have been indications that the TDP might be moving closer to the Congress after severing ties with the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
Naidu attended the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, an event that was attended by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Naidu’s party supported the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election. The Congress, for its part, supported the TDP in its no-confidence motion against the government in the last monsoon session.
Reacting to the talk of the TDP-Congress alliance, TRS president and CM Rao said it would be shameful on the part of both the parties to join hands with the sole objective of defeating him.
“The TDP has absolutely no presence in the state now. The Congress will be the biggest loser if it allies with the TDP, as the people are aware how the TDP government in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh was creating hurdles to the projects of Telangana. How can the Telangana Congress have an alliance with an Andhra party like TDP?” he asked.
