Cong-TRS seat sharing talks resume

Hyderabad, Jun 15 : The seat-sharing talks between the UPA constitutents, Congress the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) for the two-phase panchayat elections in Andhra Pradesh beginning on June 28, resumed here today.

Pradesh Congress President K Keshava Rao and former TRS Minister T Harish Rao led their teams in the talks to break the deadlock over seat sharing with only two days left for the closure of the filing of nominations.

''The talks are progressing smoothly and an agreement will be reached positively by today'', sources in the two parties said.

The talks revolved around the electoral understanding in Medak district. While the TRS was demanding 18 ZPTC seats, the Congress began the bargain with 12 ZPTC seats, expressing readiness to offer at the most 15 or 16 seats, the sources added.

Meanwhile, Congress Legislator Sunita Lakshma Reddy, talking to reporters, pleaded with the party leadership not not to concede any ZPTC seat to the CPI in Medak district as it had no no real strength there.

The ruling Congress had reached a broad understanding with the TRS aand the CPI for the Panchayat Elections to 1097 ZPTC/MPP and 16,133 MPTC seats, while the TDP had announced its decision to tie up with the CPI(M) even as the BJP had decided to contest polls on its own.

UNI