T’gana: Upset with seat negotiations delay, CPI ready to contest in lesser number of seats

Hyderabad, Oct 6: The Communist Party of India (CPI), Telangana chapter, has backtracked from its decision to contest in 12 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. The party has agreed to contest on fewer seats if it would mean a victory for the Opposition alliance against the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the News Minute reported.

CPI's Telangana Secretary Chanda Venkat Reddy said though they had eyed 12 seats earlier, they were willing to negotiate. He said neither they wished to contest in too many seats and ruin their chances nor to contest in too few seats and become irrelevant. They were eyeing wins in whichever seat they contested. The News Minute report added.

The opposition alliance in the state which will go to polls on December 7 - Telangana People's Collective - comprises besides the CPI, the Telangana Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS). Though the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi released a list of 105 candidates last month and has already started campaigning across the state, the opposition alliance is yet to officially begin talks on seat sharing for the 119 Assembly seats. The results of the election will be announced on December 11.

"In our primary proposal to the alliance parties we suggested 15 seats to TDP, six seats to TJS and remaining four seats for CPI. The Congress intends to contest in 94 seats," a Congress spokesperson was quoted as saying by The News Minute.

At a preliminary meeting of the alliance, the Congress had requested the TDP, TJS and CPI to contest in lesser number of Assembly seats. The Congress had also "promised" its allies Cabinet positions and nominations for Rajya Sabha elections, as per the Times of India.

However, the CPI remained concerned that further delays in the seat-sharing decision will affect the alliance's campaigning.