Stalemate over seat sharing continues, TJS demands 15 seats, Congress offers 5

TJS leaders and Congress leaders are hopeful of an amicable solution as seat sharing talks continue.
Stalemate over seat sharing continues, TJS demands 15 seats, Congress offers 5
Stalemate over seat sharing continues, TJS demands 15 seats, Congress offers 5
Written by:

Weeks after the date for the Telangana Assembly Election was announced, the seat sharing arrangement between the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), and the CPI is yet to be finalized. The deliberations which have been happening for several weeks continued on Friday.

In the meeting, TJS president Kodandram Reddy, who has been insisting on 15 seats did not yield to the Congress leaders, who were willing to allocate not more than 5 seats, said TJS leaders privy to the meeting.

While it was speculated earlier that Kodandram might walk out of the alliance because of the raw deal, TJS leaders say that the alliance will continue and are hopeful of an amicable solution.

“Our president is asking for 15 seats, we are hopeful that the Congress will act in the right manner. There is no possibility of walking out of the alliance,” said a TJS leader.

Congress leaders say that they are not willing to give more than 5 seats to TJS because they are unsure if TJS can put up a tough contest and win the seats allotted to them. They expressed doubts at the TJS party president’s victory, who will be contesting for the first time.  Though they are sceptical about the performance of TJS in the elections, they want Kodandram’s party to continue in the alliance.

“We want to win this election at any cost, and hence we want to give the seats, from where they have a possibility to win. TJS is new to elections, unlike TDP. TDP has a good voter base. We are trying to convince them about this,” said a senior Congress leader.

Speaking to TNM, Congress leader, Sravan Dasoju said, “We are in an alliance, we respect each other. The seat sharing will happen on satisfactory terms to both the parties.”

Besides, TJS, even the CPI is not convinced with the negotiation. CPI state secretary, Chada Venkat Reddy has been reportedly demanding a seat from Husnabad constituency claiming that the constituency has a significant communist presence. However, the Congress is reluctant to offer this seat to him, as their former MLA, Praveen Reddy is a stronger candidate from the constituency.

While negotiations for the seat-sharing is still underway, the Congress’ Election Screening Committee has conducted three rounds of screenings of aspirants and short listed their names. Their names are to be submitted to the party high command on October 21.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com