Cong clinches deal with TRS, CPI in AP

Hyderabad, June 24 (UNI) The ruling Congress today reached a seat sharing agreement with UPA constituent TRS, as also the CPI, for the two-phase Panchayat polls in Andhra Pradesh on June 28 and July two.

Announcing this at a joint press conference here, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, PCC chief K Keshava Rao and Union Minister of State for Rural Development and senior TRS leader A Narendra, said the three parties would undertake joint campaigns.

Dr Reddy appealed to the people to bless the alliance to ''strengthen secularism'' and usher in allround development with emphasis on rural parts of the state.

Stating that the TRS would contest 68 ZPTC seats, Mr Narendra and Mr Keshava announced formation of a Coordination Committee to ensure retirement of contestants in seats allocated to each other.

The Congress was yet to sort out differences in nine ZPTCs with the CPI and seven with the TRS.

Expressing satisfaction over seat sharing, Mr Narendra said the three parties had joined hands together in the larger interests of the state. The Combine will score a landslide victory in the polls, he claimed.

After conceding an additional four seats to the CPI to increase its share to 34 ZPTC, Congress agreed to give the Left party the posts of two coopted members each in Krishna and Kurnool districts after the polls.

The Congress had retained for itself a lion's share of 995 of the 1097 ZPTC seats.

CPI State Secretary K Narayana later told UNI that his party was dropping its earlier announcement to contest on 28 ZPTC seats on its own in seven districts, with the Congress allocating additional seats.

The Congress had already won 418 out of 532 MPTC seats and 10 ZPTC seats uncontested.

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