The talks for the grand alliance of opposition parties in Telangana which resumed on Sunday has already run into a new problem as the Communist Party of India (CPI) threatened to withdraw from the 'Mahakutami' if it was not allotted at least five seats.
The Mahakutami consists of the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) besides the CPI and reports suggested that the Congress was only willing to part with three seats for the Left party.
Following this, the CPI executive body held an emergency meeting in Hyderabad and said that they were ready with 'Plan B' to contest in 24 constituencies in the state, if they were not given their due share in the alliance.
The CPI also pointed out that it had a strong presence in districts like Khammam, Karimnagar and Nalgonda, adding that it did not want ‘losing’ seats from the alliance.
Speaking to reporters, party joint secretary Palla Venkat Reddy told mediapersons. “We do not wish to step out of the Mahakutami but it all depends on the Congress. We are worried going by the leaks from the Congress that they are giving us only three. During discussions, the Congress had agreed to give five seats to the CPI but didn’t confirm anything. They have not yet settled issues with the alliance partners.”
CPI is the second party to express its displeasure after the TJS also threatened to walk out last month over the number of seats being offered to it.
Last week, TJS chief K Kodandaram met Congress President Rahul Gandhi at his Delhi residence, to discuss the grand alliance.
Speaking to reporters about the seat sharing dispute that was going on in the alliance, Kodandaram said, "There was a deadlock regarding the sharing of seats but we did not discuss that over here. We mainly spoke about the need for the alliance and expressed some of our concerns. We also wanted to speed up the entire process."
The senior leader said that the TJS had asked for between 10 to 17 seats out of the 119-member Assembly up for grabs, based on the idea that they could perform well in that many constituencies.
Things have been heated since last week, after Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Uttam Kumar Reddy said that his party had decided to contest 95 Assembly seats and leave the remaining 24 seats for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other constituents of the grand alliance.
However, others in the alliance said that this was not discussed with them fully, before the Congress decided to go public.