Chief Minister for Telangana Rashtra Samithi is the deal blocker

Hyderabad: The much-hyped alliance talks between the Congress and the TRS has reportedly hit a roadblock with the TRS insisting that the Congress first declare TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao as the chief minister of Telangana.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh who arrived in the city on Thursday is expected to resume talks with the TRS leadership. According to highly-placed sources privy to the preliminary talks held in Delhi, the Congress has proposed a 50:50 sharing of seats both in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly. But TRS leaders say that sharing of seats is not going to make any impact, and it’s more important to name the future chief minister and leader of the coalition. They are insisting that Mr Rao be declared chief minister so that they are assured that the alliance will benefit them.

Congress leaders have replied that the announcement of the CM cannot be made at this stage, but said the Congress leadership would favourably consider Mr Rao’s name for the CM’s post after the elections.

TRS leaders at one stage offered to reduce their quota of Assembly seats from 60 to less than 50 and to four Lok Sabha seats from 17, in lieu of declaring Mr Rao as CM. TRS argued that it is difficult to lead the alliance in the polls without declaring a leader.

They also told Congress leaders that there is no unanimity in the Telangana Congress on the chief ministerial candidate, as there are almost a dozen contenders for the top post.

TRS leaders also conveyed to the Congress that the sitting Congress MPs representing Malkajagiri (Sarve Satyanarayana), Warangal (S. Rajaiah), Karimnagar (Ponnam Prabhakar), and Nizamabad (Madhu Yashki Gowd) should be changed as the people of their constituencies are fed up with their performance. The Congress was not too happy with this and retorted that they would take care of their party candidates.

The last meeting between the two parties was held three days ago in Delhi. In a related development, when Mr Digvijay Singh met Telangana Congress leaders on Thursday, a majority of them suggested that an alliance with the TRS should not be encouraged with preconditions like making Mr Chandrasekhar Rao the chief ministerial candidate. They said it would be in the interests of both parties if the TRS voluntarily merges with the Congress.

When contacted for their response, TRS leader B. Vinod Kumar said, “It is all speculation. There is no official invitation to us to resume talks. From our side we don’t insist. If they (Congress) are interested they can come and meet us.”

TRS MP and party secretary-general K. Kesava Rao said, “From our side there will be no initiative. We have no information that Digvijay Singh will have a meeting with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao with regard to chief ministership. We have conveyed something on those lines, but I don’t want to reveal it now. Let us see what happens.”