Hyderabad: Senior leaders K. Jana Reddy and D. Srinivas are confident that the Congress would emerge as the largest single party in Telangana and form the government. However, they ruled themselves out of the race for the Chief Minister’s post, but were clearly keeping their fingers crossed.
Speaking separately on Sunday, they said the new MLAs and the high command would decide the Chief Ministerial candidate.
Mr Jana Reddy said the Congress would get 45-50 seats and might have to seek some outside support.
He dismissed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s claim that it would win the elections. He said that though the TRS enjoys some admiration, it was not enough to make it the largest party. He also dismissed former Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal’s assessment that the TRS would win the polls.
Mr Jana Reddy said, “Lobbying for the Chief Minister’s post does not work in the Congress. The high command will decide the CM candidate after taking into account the opinion of the MLAs.”
Earlier, Mr Jana Reddy met some Telangana Congress leaders. Former minister R. Damodar Reddy said Mr Jana Reddy was qualified and experienced enough to occupy the CM’s
Mr Jana Reddy endorsed the opinion of former government chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy that the Congress had no star campaigner. But Telangana PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah brushed aside Mr Ramana Reddy’s comments and said that in the Congress every party worker was a star campaigner.
He said the new state required a leader like Mr Jana Reddy.
Meanwhile, former PCC president D. Srinivas, while affirming that the Congress would emerge as a single largest party in Telangana, said that some parties were playing mind games and the truth would be known on May 16.
He said that the high command would decide on the new Chief Minister. Announcing that he was not in the race, Mr Srinivas, who belongs to the BC community, pointed out that the high command had indicated that the post would be given to the weaker sections in Telangana.
When asked who would support the Congress, Mr Srinivas said that it would be known only after the results. He said the party would have to wait and watch how much impact cross-voting would have on its fortunes.
