The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TRS playing hide-and-seek on alliances

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Thursday, Dec 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TRS playing hide-and-seek on alliances

N. Rahul

Party two-timing Telugu Desam Party and Praja Rajyam

Talks with TRS proceeding with a ‘positive attitude’, says PR
TDP leaders feel the TRS’s move is aimed at bargaining for more seats

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has created a piquant political situation by simultaneously engaging the Telugu Desam and the Praja Rajyam in negotiations for forging an electoral alliance.

The TRS, which has reached an informal understanding with the Left, is causing consternation among the TDP leadership by keeping its plans in a suspense.

The TDP is perplexed because it has already stitched up an alliance with Left parties and is playing ball with the TRS.

Just a week ago, leaders of all these parties had held their hands aloft in a show or solidarity against the petroleum prices.

The TRS and TDP were also partners in the no-confidence motion tabled against Assembly Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy.

But, in a surprising move, the TRS has opened negotiations with Praja Rajyam, as confirmed by the president Chiranjeevi a couple of days ago.

PR spokesman Tammineni Sitaram told a press conference on Wednesday that the talks with the TRS were proceeding with a ‘positive attitude’. He said the PR had kept its doors open to alliances with like- minded parties.

Asked if the TRS fitted into this category, he said the question would be answered after the talks concluded.

He also said the two parties were trying to reach an understanding on the demand for separate Telangana.

The latest confabulations between TRS and Praja Rajyam leaders assume significance in the background of the reported meeting of former’s president K. Chandrasekhar Rao with TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu last week.

Telugu Desam leaders feel the TRS’s move is aimed at bargaining for more seats, the surprise element in the latter’s negotiations with PR was acknowledged by CPI State secretary K. Narayana when he said he could not fathom what Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was up to.

It was important to knit a strong Opposition to defeat the Congress since it was the conviction of Mr. Rao that Telangana would not achieve Statehood as long as Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy remained Chief Minister, he added.

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