‘TRS, YSRC will come into our fold after May 23’, says Congress leader
Former Union minister P Chinta Mohan said secular parties like the TRS and YSR Congress would have no option but to join hands with the Congress after May 23.
Ten days before the general election results are declared, a senior Congress leader has disclosed that that the party was in talks with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana and YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh to garner their support to form the next government at the Centre.
P Chinta Mohan, a six-time MP from Tirupati parliamentary constituency in Andhra Pradesh who served as Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers (independent charge) in the P V Narasimha Rao government between 1991 and 1996, said on Monday secular parties like the TRS and YSRC would have no option but to join hands with the Congress party after May 23.
“Our people are in talks with the senior leaders of YSRC and TRS,” he said but refused to elaborate on the negotiations. “But you will see on the night of May 23, the two parties along with other anti-BJP parties will come into the Congress fold,” he asserted.
The former MP said YSR Congress founder Jaganmohan Reddy had been in the Congress party in the past and his father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy was a die-hard Congress loyalist. “It is nothing but natural that he will join hands with the Congress party,” he said, adding that a senior Congress leader who was instrumental in making YSR as the chief minister in 2004 would step in this time to rope the YSRC into the Congress fold.
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There have been reports in the last few days that the Congress has been trying to woo the TRS and the YSRC to gain their support for the anti-BJP government. A former MP of YSRC Y V Subba Reddy confirmed to reporters last week that a senior Congress leader had contacted him for support, but did not elaborate on it. TRS leaders have not made any comment on the developments.
Mohan expressed confidence that the Congress would get around 130 seats on its own, while its friendly parties would bring in another 170 seats. “It will be Congress-led coalition government at the Centre after May 23,” he predicted.
Reacting to the efforts being made by Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to bring all the anti-Congress parties together for a grand alliance, the Congress leader said Naidu was only enacting a drama to sustain his party’s identity in the state.
“The TDP is not going to get more than six or seven MP seats. What role can he play in bringing the parties together? He is running around Rahul Gandhi and Trinamul Congress only for his political survival, as his party is going to lose power in AP,” Mohan said.
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Senior YSRC leader Tammineni Sitaram said Naidu had been projecting himself as a national leader and was going around West Bengal, Delhi and Karnantaka without any invitation. “He is boasting of playing a kingmaker role at the Centre, but his poor performance back home will dwarf him on the national canvas,” he said.
The Congress which has been marginalised in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, had had to contend with poaching of its MLAs in Telangana by the TRS since the assembly elections late last year.