Telangana elections: Seat sharing bug hits Congress led grand alliance

Hyderabad, Oct 24: The grand alliance of the Mahakutami for the Telangana assembly elections was formed with great hype, but there seems to be trouble over the issue of seat sharing.

The alliance comprising the Congress-TDP-CPI-TJS is struggling to come a conclusion over the sharing of seats. The problem for the Congress is that the rest of the allies have been demanding too many seats.

The TJS led by Professor Kodandram, an ideologue of the Telangana movement is demanding 40 seats, while the CPI and TRP are seeking 12 and 25 seats respectively. This has put the Congress in a spot of bother and the allies want the party to make the sacrifice so that the alliance survives. The alliance realises the importance of sticking together to take on the mighty TRS led by K Chandrashekhar Rao.

The Telangana Congress chief, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that he is confident that the alliance would survive. It would be a well-oiled machine and will face the elections with confidence, he also said.

On the other hand, AICC general secretary and Telangana Congress affairs, in-charge, R C Khuntia said that the Congress was willing to sacrifice some seats to protect the interests of the alliance. He denied that there were differences over the issue of seat sharing. He went on to add that the main agenda would be to defeat KCR and for this the party was willing to sacrifice some seats.

TDP chief, Chandrababu Naidu meanwhile told his party workers to be particular while demanding seats. He said that the TDP should get those seats where it is confident of winning. The TDP's Telangana unit president L Ramanna said that the party is flexible and will pursue the common goal to defeat the TRS.

Analysts feel that this delay in announcing tickets could be a setback for the alliance. The TRS on the other hand has already released its list of 112 seats out of the 119. Further KCR has already launched his campaign in a big way and has covered five districts.