Hyderabad: Even as they work to form a grand alliance, Opposition parties will face a problem in agreeing upon the formula to share the 119 seats in the Assembly. The first point of friction will be the number of seats that each party will get, and the second will be identifying the constituencies which the constituents of the grand alliance will contest from.
The TS Telugu Desam has taken the initiative to form the alliance and has completed discussions with the CPI and will now talk with the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) of Prof. Kodandaram. A TD leader said that in the first stage the parties will come to an understanding to form a grand alliance. In the second stage they will discuss about seat adjustment. On Monday, TD leaders were not able to hold talks with those of the Congress or the TJS because they were busy with the Bharat bandh.
The Congress, TD, CPI and TJS will be in the grand alliance if everything goes planned. The CPM has decided to have an alliance with the Jana Sena of actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan. The Congress plan is to 29 seats to the TD, TJS and the CPI and contest from 90 seats. The TD is claiming 25 to 30 seats for itself, and the TJS wants 30. The CPI wants five seats.
According to the Congr-ess plan, it will give the TD the 15 seats that it had won during the 2014 elections. The other 14 seats will be adjusted between the TJS and the CPI. If this is sorted, each party will make its own demand on individual seats. To highlight the pulls and pressures that each party will face, there are two ready examples.
TD senior leader and former MP T. Devender Goud wants his son Veerendar Goud to be fielded from the Medchal constituency, where former MLA and Congress leader K. Laxma Reddy has staked his claim. The Congress says Mr Laxma Reddy is a strong candidate from Medchal. When talk began about the TD-Congress alliance, Mr Laxma Reddy met Mr Goud and requested him to leave Medchal if the understanding does come through.
Congress legislator T. Jeevan Reddy was elected from Jagityal on 2014, earlier the seat was won by TS TD president L. Ramana. The Congress does not want to give up the seat. Mr Ramana will then have to shift to Koratla.
Congress and other parties have decided that the discussions on alliance should be confined to the Assembly polls. Discuss-ing Lok Sabha seats right away would only complicate the situation.
