Congress, TDP, CPI form alliance in Telangana

In a major development, the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) yesterday joined hands to form a grand alliance to take on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana in the upcoming assembly elections.The leaders of the three parties announced after the first round of talks that they are forming the alliance.This is the first time in TDP’s 35-year-old history that it is joining hands with the Congress in a state.State Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said they would try to bring together all opposition parties to defeat the TRS. The alliance will also seek the support of all people’s organisations, employees, unemployed and women’s groups.The leaders of the three parties met at a hotel in Hyderabad. This was their first meeting to form an alliance.Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao last week dissolved the assembly and decided to go for early elections. The polls are likely in November. The opposition parties have termed TRS chief’s action as undemocratic.Uttam Kumar Reddy, TDP’s Telangana unit president L Ramna and CPI’s state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy and other leaders of the three parties took part in the talks.Later, they joined leaders of other opposition parties to meet Governor E S L Narasimhan and demand President’s rule in the state.They said that free and fair elections are not possible in Telangana with Rao as the caretaker chief minister.The state Congress chief later told reporters that the opposition parties have expressed their concern over KCR abusing power for the benefit of TRS. They said KCR had openly claimed that he had discussed with Election Commission to hold the vote in November.“This is against the principles of democracy and against the constitution. Holding of elections and formation of government are the duties of the Election Commission and not the ruling party’s,” he said.Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rao and Election Commission appear to be in connivance to suppress people’s democratic rights.He said that the Election Commission had announced the schedule for revision of electoral rolls on September 1. The entire process was to be completed by January 4.