Lack of seriousness in Congress on alliance issue

It now emerges that the Congress’ central leadership had not put serious efforts to thrash out irritants in forging the alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, after its chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao went back on his promise of merging the party into the Congress after bifurcation of the State.

Party leaders maintain that barring a single phone call to the Rajya Sabha MP K. Keshava Rao from the AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh during his three-day visit to the city seeking time for a meeting, no other attempt was made.

Media hype

They pointed out that Mr. Singh spoke more about the alliance in the media rather than putting the plan into action. It is understood that the AICC general secretary was told that without proper home work the talk of alliance would be a futile exercise.

A member of the Telangana Pradesh Election Committee told

The Hindu on Sunday that during the maiden meeting three days ago in Gandhi Bhavan, not many had mentioned the need for alliance. “At the end of the meeting, Mr. Singh was not in a position to judge the exact mood of the party leaders,” sources said. Another section of the Telangana leaders said the central leadership was wary of the tall order that the TRS chief could make once the talks on the alliance commenced.

Cong. leaders’ contention

Some leaders requesting anonymity said some sitting MPs and MLAs from North Telangana were keen on forging an alliance with the TRS in order to ensure smooth sailing in the coming elections. Their contention was that TRS has a strong base in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nizamabad and Medak. It would be difficult to fight polls with them in such a situation, some of them pleaded with the top leaders.

Those in South Telangana feel that the going would be smooth in Ranga Reddy, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Khammam districts. A TPCC functionary said at the present juncture the Congress and the TRS are evenly placed.

Friendly parties

“If our strength is South Telangana, the TRS leadership may make inroads in North Telangana. In case of a fractured mandate in the new State with the Congress able to get a decent number, it may always bank on friendly parties like the MIM for outside support. The Congress leadership can bank on the Left parties support also,” sources said.

A few senior leaders warned that although the Congress stood a good chance of winning the elections riding on the fact that AICC president Sonia Gandhi was solely responsible for creation of Telangana, but infighting and improper selection of candidates could mar its chances.