TRS left friendless, KCR under pressure

Hyderabad : With Congress moving towards seat adjustments with Communist party of India (CPI), pressure is now mounting on TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao from some of his party's politburo members to reconsider his decision to fight the elections alone.

A section of party leaders are learnt to be trying to convince KCR about the need for forging electoral alliance since a survey, commissioned by a popular television channel, showed "poor rating" for TRS if it goes to polls on its own.

According to party sources, many of the party leaders, who publicly claim that the party would fight alone, admit in the internal meetings that without alliance, the Telangana votes would be shared by three parties.

The TRS president is said to have repeatedly told his party leaders that the TRS would emerge as a key player after the elections. He has been insisting that he would ensure that the party would come to power in the new State of Telangana if 70 Assembly seats were left to him.

The pro-alliance section within the TRS feels that poll tie-up would be beneficial, particularly in places like Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Khammam districts where the party is not very strong.

The leaders are apprehensive about the outcome of the elections to local bodies and want the party president to take a decision on alliances at the earliest.

"The picture will become clear after the municipal and local bodies elections. If the party does not fare well in these elections, then it will be too late to negotiate with parties for alliance," said a senior TRS leader on condition of anonymity.

Sources said that some senior leaders told KCR that alliance would be a better option. "The Congress is like an ocean and it will be better to align with it for positive results," said a TRS leader.

However, the TRS chief is said to be averse to poll tie-ups and is confident that the party would fare better. For the record, the TRS leaders were quick to counter the claims of a regional news channel which did the survey.

When asked, the TRS politburo member Shravan Dasoju denied that there was a demand for alliance within the party. Shravan said, "There won't be any alliance with Congress and majority of the party leaders including politburo members are not in favour of alliance."

The TRS will be the largest party in the Telangana State and an overwhelming mood within the party is in favour of fighting the elections alone, he said.