Allies demand more seats from Congress

Congress is in a piquant situation as TDP and CPI are asking for seats where the party has sitting MLAs.

The Congress, which is keen on building a grand alliance (Mahakutami) in Telangana, is facing a tough time as potential allies are demanding more seats than it can give. Of the 119 Assembly seats here, the party is not ready to concede more than 29 seats to them all put together and wants to keep at least 90 for itself.

However, going by the initial demands from allies, including the TDP and CPI, the number may go up to 40 or 45, leaving Congress with only 80 or 75, which is totally unacceptable to the party which wants to come to power on its own in Telangana. The issue was brought to the notice of Congress president Rahul Gandhi when he held a marathon meeting with Telangana party leaders in Delhi on Friday.

Rahul Gandhi is particular about forming an alliance with like-minded parties to defeat the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS in the coming Assembly polls that might be held along with those of the four states Assemblies in December. However, the wish list of allies has become a headache for the party, according to seniors who were present at the Friday meeting in Delhi.

The TDP, which won just 15 seats in 2014, has now identified 30 seats where its vote share is more than 30%. The party, which is ruling neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, wants at least 19 or 20 seats. The CPI which won just one seat last time wants to contest six seats this time. The Congress is in a piquant situation as both TDP and CPI have been asking for seats where the party has sitting MLAs now.

The grand alliance is packed as four other smaller parties have expressed their desire to join it. They are Prof Kodandaram-led Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), Telangana Inti Party (TIP), Yuva Telangana Party (YTP) and Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS). All these are new entrants to election politics, but want some good number of seats to make their presence felt. 

Telangana Congress president N. Uttam Kuamr Reddy told The Sunday Guardian on Saturday that the actual process of negotiations with allies was yet to begin and hoped that the seat sharing issue would be sorted out smoothly. “We will not give up our seats or our strongholds, but try to evolve a mechanism to see that anti-TRS votes were not divided,” Reddy said.