Congress, TRS anxious over 55 seats - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad: Amidst indications of a fractured verdict in Telangana, the two contenders for power'Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Congress -- are eyeing for at least 55 seats in the 119-member Assembly that would push them within the striking distance of power.

If either of them touch 55-seat mark, it would be easy to enlist the support of five more members, either from MIM or from independents, to reach the half-way mark to form the government.

Despite conducting scores of booth-level surveys and elaborate internal exercise, neither the TRS nor the Congress is sure of getting majority.

As a result, both the parties are indulging in a mind game to suit their respective agendas in the post-poll scenario. Whichever party crosses 55 seats would be in an advantageous position, as both these parties are equally capable of mustering the necessary majority on their own from like-minded parties and even independents.

Keeping this scenario in mind, both the parties are pinning their hopes on the MIM which is sure to win more than half a dozen Assembly seats in Hyderabad.

But, TRS as a hindsight also sees the support of Jagan as a game-changer for forming government as the party is likely to open its account in Khammam, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts. Hence, KCR has been praising Jagan with a view to keeping him in good humour.

However, the single largest worrying factor for the TRS is the long gap between the date of announcement of results (May 16) and the Appointed Day (June 2) as it would give scope to poaching of MLAs.

If views expressed by some of the contestants that they were being approached by influential people on behalf of a national party are to be believed, then an inevitable scenario of elected MLAs changing camps seems imminent.

In order to avoid such a situation, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has been playing the minority card and repeatedly speaking out that he would support only secular forces and ruling out supporting the NDA in the post-poll scenario.

KCR is also trying to warm up to the Congress central leadership by declaring that he would support the UPA if there was possibility of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi becoming Prime Minister.

Political analysts feel that by supporting Rahul, the TRS chief was trying to reach out to Delhi as he could prevail upon the local Congress leaders only if he is in good terms with 10 Janpath and also make the UPA ally MIM part of the first Telangana government.

With the chances of a fractured mandate evident in Telangana even before the polling date, KCR tried his best to woo government employees by promising them Central government salaries, Rs 1 lakh farm-loan waiver and 12 per cent reservation to the Muslims, apart from other community-specific sops.

Based on this argument, KCR has been claiming that he would win 48 of the 54 seats in north Telangana districts comprising Adilabad (10/10), Nizamabad (9/9), Karimnagar (11/13), Medak (8/10) and Warangal (10/12). He feels that half of the 29 Assembly seats in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts would ensure the TRS cross the magic figure of 60 seats, necessary to form the government.

And whatever seats they would get from Khammam (10), Nalgonda (12) and Mahbubnagar (14), they would serve as bonus for the party.

There are 65 seats in south Telangana, where the party is expected to better its 2009 performance. However, political analysts say that it is not easy to predict the outcome of the election as Telangana region witnessed a multi-cornered contest.

Moreover, it would be imprudent to treat TDP ' BJP combine as inconsequential players. In fact, both the parties are cadre-based and have their own share of votes in each constituency.

'Even if we presume, for argument sake, that the combine will not win any seats in the region, the votes they get could affect the winning chances of both Congress and TRS candidates,' an analyst said.