Days after the exhibition of strength at Kolkata rally, the Mahagatbandhan alliance seems to be failing in Andra Pradesh as Congress party has decided to go without the Telegu Desam Party in the upcoming elections. The state has 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies and will witness state elections concurrently with Lok Sabha elections.
According to reports, AICC general secretary and person-in-charge of the State Oommen Chandy declared the party’s decision a day after holding deliberations with President Rahul Gandhi. He said that 200 convenors of the constituencies and the State executive committee members will converge and discuss future party prospects in Vijayawada, on 31st January. The former Kerela Cheif Minister has also expressed hope that party will not have a tough time finding candidates to filed in elections and said that there are plenty of candidates willing to fight.
The party, according to Oommen Chandy, will go to elections with the promise of Special Category Status to state. According to him, it will one of the first decisions taken by the party, if they are voted to power.
The cracks in the alliance of TDP-Congress had surfaced after the debacle in the last assembly elections of Telangana. Both the parties had cobbled up an alliance with Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI), to combat the incumbent Telangana Rashtra Samithi CM KC Rao. The alliance, named Prajakutami, had failed miserably with Congress getting 19 seats out of 100 it had contested, and TDP getting relegated to two seats. The other alliance partners had drawn a blank. Due to this, CM KC Rao was back to the throne with a thumping majority of 88 seats.
The Congress party’s senior cadre had expressed disenchantment with TDP and had warned party against contesting with them again in future. The senior leaders were of the opinion that, if the party had gone alone in the state, it would have secured more seats. The damage according to the party, came because the alliance with TDP betrayed anti-Telangana sentiments, as TDP was against the very formation of the state. However, the TDP was against breaking up of any alliance and had cited show of strength of opposition leaders at the swearing-in ceremony of Congress leader at Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as a reason to further strengthen the alliance and fight together.
The Mahagatbnadhan dreams of Congress have failed to materialise not only in Andhra Pradesh but also in other states. The recent announcement of the alliance between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had brought bad news for Congress as it was kept at bay with mere two seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli. Congress had later announced that it will field candidates in all seats of UP.
BSP has also announced that in Madhya Pradesh, it will contest all the Lok Sabha seats by its own without Congress. In Bihar too, the Rashtriya Janta Dal leaders have expressed discontent with Congress, after the latter decided to induct ‘tainted leaders’ like Pappu Yadav, Lovely Anand and Anant Singh into Congress.
The Andra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has been at the forefront of forming an Anti-Modi alliance in the country. He had even invited his arch-nemesis Telangana CM KC Rao, to come on board and fight BJP, rather than put efforts to cobble up a Thrid-Front or Federal Front which is free of both Congress and BJP.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy will organize a state-wide bus yatra in the month of February, to kick-start the campaign. The yatra will be held in all the 13 districts of the state.
