TRS, Congress to woo Telugu Desam for tie-up
Both the ruling TRS and the main opposition party, the Congress, are keen to have a pre-poll tie-up with the TD.
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam has become the most sought-after alliance partner in Telangana for the 2019 elections after it snapped ties with the BJP. Both the ruling TRS and the main opposition party, the Congress, are keen to have a pre-poll tie-up with the TD.
These parties feel that the TD still enjoys up to seven per cent of the traditional vote bank in Telangana State and this will play a decisive role on who will capture the power in the state in 2019.
While the Congress is learnt to be ready to offer a Lok Sabha seat and 15 Assembly seats to the TD in 2019, the TRS is reportedly in favour of offering a Lok Sabha and 12 Assembly seats.
Even after bifurcation of state and the TD being projected as a “Andhra party” during the 2014 elections, it won one Lok Sabha and 15 Assembly seats in TS in alliance with the BJP.
However, the TD’s lone Lok Sabha member from Malkajgiri Ch. Malla Reddy and 12 MLAs defe-cted to the TRS, while TD MLA Revanth Reddy defected to the Congress. With the defection, the Telugu Desam is now left with only two MLAs, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah (Sathupally) and R. Krishnaiah (LB Nagar).
The TD’s alliance partner BJP won one Lok Sabha seat from Secunde-rabad (Bandaru Dattat-reya) and five MLA seats, all from GHMC limits (Amberpet, Musheera-bad, Uppal, Khairatabad and Goshamal).
With the TD moving away from the BJP in protest against the NDA government’s refusal to accord special category status to AP recently, the impact is being felt on Telangana too.
TD national president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has kept the alliance options in Telangana ‘open’ and during the meeting held with Telangana TD leaders in Hyderabad last month.
In fact, T-TD leader Mothkupalli Narsimhulu has already proposed either the merge T-TD in the TRS or striking a pre-poll alliance, which created flutter in party circles.
MLA A.Revanth Reddy has been pitching for Congress-TDP alliance.
Congress sources said, “The proposal of Congress-TD alliance has already been discussed with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. It is under his active consideration.”