Congress, TDP unite to fight TRS

Hyderabad: In a fast pace political development, Congress and its arch rival TDP have become ‘friendly’ parties in Telangana. The two opposition parties have forged a ‘non-poll’ alliance to launch a joint fight against the TRS government, its failures and anti-people policies.

The two parties also decided to stay away from their respective poll partners for the time being. TDP sailed with BJP and Congress forged alliance with CPI as an electoral partner in Telangana during the 2014 elections. Leaders of the two parties -- TDP working president A Revanth Reddy and TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy have already chalked out an action plan to take up agitations and people’s movements jointly.

After facing massive defections to TRS at every level -- village, mandal and state -- and even legislators from both TDP and Congress, the leaders of both the parties arrived at a conclusion that fighting alone against KCR government’s failure would not draw people's attention as the cadre were already ‘demoralised’ with the spate of defections.

The party workers were also not ready to take part actively in agitations in view of KCR’s growing popularity.A senior Congress party leader told The Hans India that the only option left before the leaders to revive the two parties was to put up a combined fight against the KCR government.

As a beginning towards launching a combined struggle against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government, Revanth and Uttam already shared a single platform at a meeting conducted by Osmania University JAC against the delay in the government job recruitments and announced a joint struggle on the particular issue.

In the ongoing budget session also, TDP joined hands with Congress in raising issues during the debates. Revanth expressed solidarity to Congress leader D K Aruna when the government moved a suspension motion against Aruna for her alleged comments on deputy speaker Padma Devendar Reddy and also staged walkout along with Congress legislators.

To give a tough fight against TRS in the recently held Achampeta Nagara Panchayat election, TDP and Congress floated ‘Mahakutami’ (Grand Alliance) involving left and BJP also. However, the alliance drew a blank in the hustings. Several important issues have been identified on which the two parties would take up a protracted fight against the government.

The issues include – agreements entered by TRS government with its Maharashtra counterpart on projects on River Godavari, agriculture crisis, farmers suicides, unemployment and implementation of promises like 2BHK and KG-to-PG scheme proposed by TRS. To highlight failure of the government, joint dharnas, rallies and meetings would also be conducted.

"The understanding between the two parties would last until there is no objection from the respective party high commands." A senior leaders maintained that the two parties have come together to strengthen the respective parties through mutual cooperation and corner the TRS government. The political agenda of the two parties would remain the same. In the electoral battle, Telugu Desam and Congress however would continue to fight as ‘rivals’ in elections.