TJS sets Mahakutami deadline

Hyderabad: Composition of Mahakutami will not be clear for a few more days as individual parties seem to be in no hurry to stitch the alliance and hit the battleground at the earliest unlike TRS whose candidates are already on the job to woo voters from the last few weeks.

Although initial talks were held between Congress, TDP, CPI and then TJS got on board for discussions, no headway was made on how to work together or sort out seat-sharing tangles.

TJS has already submitted a list of conditions to the remaining three parties to join the alliance and Congress had not made its intentions clear on its demands. TJS and Congress were supposed to meet on September 25 to take this discussion further, but there would be no meeting as TJS delegation was asked to attend a meeting with Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon for deciding on its application for granting recognition to party.

In this backdrop, TJS leadership has conveyed their views to Congress and asked the national party to make its stand clear. A senior TJS leader said that Congress state unit was told that they would wait for two days for a response or else TJS, that has connections with AICC, will take up the issue with it. Since the state unit was non-committal thus far, we have thought why not take the matter to the notice of key AICC members so that something could be finalised, he said.

There is a difference of opinion in TJS and Congress over number of seats to be given to the new party. While TJS is hoping for a figure close to twenty seats, Congress camp is of the opinion that barring Kodandaram and one or two leaders, TJS candidates does not stand a chance to win election in various constituencies. A Congress leader said that TJS was asking some constituencies in North Telangana and “our surveys found that Congress candidates are more stronger than TJS”.

TDP, for its part, has decided to wait for the outcome of Supreme Court hearing into a case opposing early elections as lakhs of voters’ names were deleted from rolls. “We will wait what Supreme Court has to say on this in the hearing before focusing on our future moves,” said a senior leader from the party.