Another round of talks over seat-sharing among the Congress-led Grand Alliance partners ended inconclusive on Monday, although junior partners CPI and TJS have started getting vocal, apart from expressing disappointment against what they term “dragging of feet” in allotment of seats by the senior partner.
Leaderships of both CPI and TJS have expressed the hope that the seat-sharing would be firmed up before the end of Deepavali festivities as they believe that the alliance would suffer in its objective of defeating TRS, if it looses one or two partners.
Sources in the Congress stated that the CPI was adamant on at least five seats and one seat is expected to be spared for Telangana Inti Party.
After the reports that the CPI is going ahead with announcing names of its candidates for nine seats, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told media persons after the talks on Monday that no party would leave the alliance and the process of consultations was in progress with both the CPI and TJS. He stated that he would be in Delhi on Tuesday for discussions with the screening committee.
President of the TJS M. Kodandaram said that there was huge pressure on the alliance partners to get a respectable share of seats for contesting the election and admitted that “the delay in finalising the seat-sharing is giving rise to misgivings over the alliance”.
Speaking after unveiling the “match box” symbol allotted to the TJS by the Election Commission, Mr. Kodandaram reiterated his plea to the Congress to don the role of an elder brother to keep the alliance intact. He would take a decision on entering the fray once seat-sharing was finalised.
CPI ‘deadline’
The TJS chief said they had been asking for 10 seats as a responsible alliance partner, although they were a formidable force in more seats. His attention drawn to the CPI deadline of two days for announcement of at least five seats for it before it chalked out its own course, Mr. Kodandaram said the CPI was an important ally and he too would take up their demand with the Congress.
Meanwhile, AICC in-charge for Telangana R.C. Khuntia feigned ignorance about the CPI’s reported deadline on finalising the seat-sharing and said the talks were in progress and the announcement of candidates would begin only after November 9. After his meeting with Indian Muslim League leader Abdul Ghani, Mr. Khuntia welcomed the support extended by the IML to the Congress.
Expressing similar views that seat-sharing would be finalised only after Deepavali, AICC secretary Madhu Yaskhi said the alliance partners had given reports on seats and priority would be given to social composition in the seat-sharing.
