Cong-TRS pact spells trouble for TDP

In a move that could spell a setback to the Telugu Desam Party's fortunes in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) finalised a seat-sharing deal despite the last minute hitches.

The TRS will contest 42 Assembly and 5 Lok Sabha seats. The Telengana region accounts for 107 seats in the 294-member Assembly.

The Congress currently holds 91 seats as a principal opposition of which 41 are from the Telengana region.

If the Congress-TRS alliance can prevent splitting of votes and ensure an increase of its tally, the TDP and the longevity of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu could be in trouble.

The seat-sharing formula was not made public to ensure that the sitting Congress MLAs were not forced into the arms of the TDP.

But it is clear that 107 seats in the Assembly and 16 in the Lok Sabha from the Telengana region are going to be hotly contested seats for they hold the key to the survival of a political party.

The story of the TRS, which advocates a separate state for Telengana, began in 2002 when K Chandrashekhar Rao, TDP legislator from Siddipet in the Medak district, was sent home in a Cabinet reshuffle by Naidu.

He quit and turned it into an issue of the humiliation of Telengana, launching the TRS to fight for the self-respect of the region.

The Congress was quick to associate itself with it, not endorsing the demand for a separate state but asking the Centre for a fifth states reorganisation commission.

The TDP, meanwhile, believed that the TRS was doing it no harm, because the perceived rivalry between coastal Andhra (including regions like Visakhapatnam) and Telengana (including backward districts like Adilabad, Mehbubnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal) would actually turn the balance of advantage to its favour, consolidating the votes of the people of coastal Andhra.

Whether this is indeed happening is yet to be seen. If it does not, the TDP could face a rout in the Telengana region where even TDP legislators are uncertain of the way they should counter the emotive demand for a separate state.

In the Lok Sabha, if the Congress beats the TDP in even 10 out of 16 Telegana seats, it could have powerful ramifications on the government formation at the Centre.

"Today, we have decided to work together and campaign together to ensure the defeat of the TDP-BJP combine," the TRS leader said.

He won the by-election as a representative of the TRS. Two more MLAs resigned from the Congress and took the BJP member of Parliament from Medak A Narendra with them to launch an umbrella TRS Representatives Forum that later merged with the TRS.

The issue of a separate Telengana state has been a political one since 1956. The TRS, instead of taking a confrontationist position vis a vis political parties and the state government, began a movement for sensitising people of the region to the "wrongs" done to them.