Opposition decides to take unity test against TRS

Hyderabad: The alliance forged by the Congress, Telugu Desam and the BJP in Mahbubnagar district for the Atchampet municipal polls to take on the TRS has generated considerable interest in political circles.

Congress and TD leaders say they will not rule out the possibility of similar alliances in other elections. Leaders of both parties also admitted of having such an understanding in the Khammam Municipal Corporation polls in some divisions.

In the Atchampet municipality, which is going to polls along with Warangal and Khammam Municipal Corporations on May 6, local leaders from the three Opposition parties have decided to forge an alliance and are contesting together by sharing the 20 wards.

The Congress is contesting from 13, Telugu Desam from four and the BJP from the remaining three to make it a “Mahaku-tami” (grand alliance) against the ruling TRS.

Earlier, too, such experiments were done at the initiative of local Congress leaders for sarpanch elections in Nakrekal (Nalgonda) and Jadcherla (Mahbubnagar). In both instances it worked.

Former Congress MLA from Atchampet, Dr Vamsi Krishna, took the initiative this time and extended the experiment to the entire municipality.

TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has entrusted the job of winning the Atchampet municipality to industries minister Jupally Krishna Rao who has been taking whirlwind tours in the wards for the last few days.

Mr Krishna Rao has been asking people to defeat the Mahakutami candidates and ensure a big win for the TRS so that Atchampet can be developed by the Chief Minister.

However, the state leaders of the three Opposition parties were not ready to comment on whether the Atchampet formula would be adopted for all future elections as of now.

A TPCC senior leader holding a key party post told this newspaper on Sunday, “Officially we cannot commit ourselves to having an alliance with the BJP, but unofficially it is there. In the Khammam Municipal Corporation elections we have an agreement over seat sharing with the CPI".

"We also had an understanding with the Telugu Desam in certain divisions, this we cannot disclose officially. But one thing is clear, we will not let the TRS sweep the elections by splitting the Opposition votes anymore.”

The leader also said that some understanding with other Opposition parties had been planned in the Warangal Municipal Corporation elections too but the sudden defection of former minister Basavaraju Saraiah a day before the nominations had altered the election arithmetic.

“Now, candidates have been fielded by one and all, and we still may reach an understanding with others against the TRS to see to it that the ruling party is defeated,” the TPCC leader added.