E-Paper
CPI to ally with Congress, CPI (M) to go it alone in Telangana polls
The seat-sharing talks between CPI (M) and Congress collapsed last week, after CPI (M) general secreary Sitaram Yechury said the matter was left for the party’s state unit to decide
The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (M), which have earlier decided to go together in the upcoming assembly elections in Telangana, have now parted ways.
While the CPI has joined hands with the Congress and agreed to fight the elections for a lone assembly seat, the CPI (M) declared that it would go it alone in the elections and announced candidates for 19 assembly seats.
On Tuesday, the CPI and the Congress came to a formal understanding. As per the agreement, the Congress decided to allot Kothagudem assembly seat in Bhadradri Kothagudem district to the CPI. Party’s state secretary Kunamaneni Sambasiva Rao will be contesting the elections from Kothagudem.
“We appreciate the gesture of the CPI leadership in agreeing for one MLA seat. If the party comes to power in the next elections, we shall allocate two MLC seats to the CPI,” PCC president A Revanth Reddy said in a statement after completion of talks at the CPI headquarters at Makhdoom Bhavan on Tuesday evening.
The CPI agreed to support the candidates of the Congress in all 118 assembly constituencies.
On the other hand, the seat-sharing talks between CPI (M) and Congress collapsed last week itself, after CPI (M) chief Sitaram Yechury said the matter was left for the party’s state unit.
On Tuesday, CPI (M) state secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram said there would be no further talks with the Congress and his party would contest as many as 19 assembly seats. “There is no compromise on our seats. We have asked for the seats where we are strong, but the Congress is adamant,” Veerabhadram said.
