Andhra Politics - Congress ;TDP;PRP;TRS

This is an exact replica of the political situation in the state in 2004 before the elections, except for the role of TDP and Congress. In 2004, when TDP was ruling, all the opposition parties stood by Congress with the sole aim of getting TDP out of power, alleging that TDP has become an inefficient government.

Now, after five years of Congress ruling, the same oppositions parties (CPM, CPI and TRS) have joined hands with TDP and this time their sole aim to bring down Congress and the allegation on Congress government is high corruption. The leaders of all the opposition parties met here in Chandra Babu’s residence and have announced that they have all united and formed Maha Kootami (Great Allinace) and will bring down the corrupted Congress government in the next elections which are to be held in a few months.

Hope that this Maha Kootami will fare well and achieve its goal.

After years of deliberation, the Congress party has finally realized the potential losses it would suffer if it goes for the coming general elections alone. With opposition leader Chandra Babu forming a ‘Great Allinance’ in the state, Congress realized that it cannot sustain the upcoming elections without coalating with TRS party. As TRS leader Chandra Sekhar Rao did not yet declare that he would work with TDP, Congress is trying hard to attract him towards his party.

Right from the year 2004 in which Congress got into power at the state and the central level, TRS has been appealing for the formation of a separta state Telanagana. However, Congress never really considered this a big issue and kept neglecting TRS, even when TRS resigned from the Government. However, now that the elections are impending in a few months and TDP getting stronger day by day, Congress has realized the need to take quick steps in favor of Telangana before the elections.

The president of National Congress Ms. Sonia Gandhi has prepared the grounds in favor of Telanga and it was reported that the party would pass a bill for separate Telangana in the coming budget session of the Parliament to be held in the first week of February. This can be seen as a strategic move by Congress to take away all the credit for separata Telangana before the elections and this force TRS to work with them in the next general elections.

If this turns out to be true, TRS will have a tough time deciding about their future.

Newly established political party, Praja Rajyam is completely isolated in the state now. PRP has been trying to form a coalition with the political parties in the state, other than TDP and Congress. Their initial attempts to coalate with the Communists appeared to be fruitful but were in vain, when the communists have finally decided to go with Telugu Desam.

Since then, PRP has been trying to get along with Telanga Rashtra Samithi. However, President or TRS has given a clear signal yesterday that even he would be going along with Telugu Desam in the next elections. Though not officially declared, KCR made a comment which suggested that his party has decided to stay together with TDP. He said that time has arrived for himself and Chandra Babu to work together again.

This decision has completed the isolation of PRP. It is evident now that, PRP must stand alone in the next general elections. Chandra Babu has shown his political diligence by attracting both the Communists and TRS towards his party.

Telanga Rashtra Samithi President KCR, talked about the alliances with other parties. He was asked by one of the journalists as to how many seats he would request the party with which he forms a coalition. KCR responded with a very strong tone to this question and said that his party would give seats to any other party but not take seats from other parties. He said that his party is much stronger in the Telangana region than what it was a few years back and that they would definitely contest in more seats than what they did in 2004. He also said that his party might contest in all the 119 constituencies if the situation demands.

When asked about the coalitions, he said that he had not fixed any deadlines to himself and that he would take a decision after discussing with all the members in his party and other prominent Telangana leaders. However, he confirmed he would definitely not go with the Congress party. When asked about PRP and TDP, he said he would consider one of these parties for a coalition.

Praja Rajyam President Chiranjeevi is facing tough times in politics. In his movies everything happened as he wanted and everyone liked him. But in the real life political scenario no one seems to like him. Praja Rajyma has tried hard for a coalition with the Communist Parties but failed as the Communists decided to go with the Telugu Desam Party. Since then PRP had been trying to go along with TRS. However, the latest developments indicate that TRS is also willing to go along with the Telugu Desam Party.

 Earlier TRS has declared that they will announce their stand by December 24th and the party seniors had met yesterday in Hyderabad to decide on the parties with which they should work. In this meeting, TRS has discussed the advantages of working with TDP and PRP. They felt that going with a new party like PRP might be an experimental move and too risky. However, TDP is also not a better option because TDP will not allow them to contest in more assembly segments.

So, TRS leaders are currently discussing whether to go with PRP to get more assembly segments or go with TDP and avoid any experiments. But sources suggest that most of the members are in favor of TDP. So probably Chiranjeevi must go alone in the coming elections.

It seems all the parties are getting closer each day in their fight against the ruling Congress party. In the last general elections, all the parties allied to defeat the then ruling party TDP and succeeded in doing so. Now, an almost similar situation can be seen in the state, with TDP and Congress exchanging positions.

Communists and TDP have already declared officially that they would work together in the next general elections with the sole aim of ending Congress party’s ‘evil rule’. Now Chandra Babu is trying hard to get TRS also into his camp. TRS president has also indicated a few days back that he can’t rule out the possibility of an alliance with TDP.

Yesterday TDP and Communists staged a protest against the increasing prices in the state and TRS also participated in this protest. This is the first time to see TRS and TDP leaders on the same platform after they parted in 2001. They have joined hands together to express their solidarity to the protest against the government and probably both were hoping that this unity turns into a political alliance which would help both the parties.

Seven months before the election data it has become pretty apparent that no party will ‘rule’ this time. There is a high probability of ‘hung assembly’ in the next general elections and thus alliances have become very important for all the political parties.

Given the Congress, TDP and PRP and the three ‘big’ parties in the state, it has become quite crucial as to who will win the support of the remaining parties in the state. All the parties left no stone unturned in order to form a proper coalition and as of now TDP has the upper hand.

PRP, led by Chiranjeevi has tried very hard to form an alliance with the communists. However, the communists have denied this offer and decided to go with Chandra Babu Naidu’s TDP. The lack of political experience of Chiranjeevi and his party was clearly seen in the way Chandra Babu handled the situation and turned the communists to his side.

Now that the communists are gone, PRP is trying to ally with TRS, the other major party in the state. TRS president Chandra Sekhar Rao did not rule out the possibility of a coalition with PRP. However political observers feel that Chandra Babu will affect TRS also. If that happens Congress and PRP will have to contest alone in the next elections and TDP along with TRS and Communists.

We need to see hoe Chiranjeevi will handle this situation and attract the TRS leaders. PRP, though did not admit, is in dire need of a coalition and believes that going alone will severely affect their winning chances.

This is a huge blow to all the political parties in the state. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh passed a ’stay’ on the Road Shows being organized by all the political parties and issued notices to all the parties of the state. It allowed the parties to file a counter in a week’s time if the parties feel that the ’stay’ is not fair.

With Chiranjeevi organizing Road Shows through out the state and receiving huge public response, all parites in the state folowed the same path and started organizing shows (all parties include Congress, PRP, TDP, TRS and Communists). The turn out for these road shows had been huge and everything was going well. However a few days back four people died in stampedein Chiranjeevi’s Road Show.

After this incident a person named Venkatesh filed a petition against the Road Shows being organized by political parties. He mentioned that the parties are trying to display by their strngth by organizing these road showsand the lack of proper control is causing the death of the people who attend these meetings. The High Court responded positively to the petition and ordered an immediate and inconditional stay on all the Road Shows. The Court ordered the Police Department not to allow any Road Shows.

The political parties are preparing to file counter petitions. This will be an important aspect in the current politics. Will the Road Shows be banned completely in India like some of the western countries?

TRS took a U turn! For the past few months, TRS has almost made it very clear that it will align with Telugu Desam Party in the upcoming elections. This decision was taken in the wake of the change of policy of TDP in regards to Telangana. Both these parties have unofficially met and decided on their election strategies.

It is unknown what happened in the past few days but Chandra Sekhar Reddy, president of TRS has suddenly announced that they may continue their alliance with the Congress. He indicated that the Congress party high command is very likely to take a decision in favor of Telangana and if that happens, he would be morally bound to go with Congress.

TRS has allied with Congress in the previous elections five years back as Congress has promised then that they would support the cause of separate Telangana.  However, Congress has betrayed TRS which finally made TRS break up with Congress after four years. But now this drastic move by TRS to get back with Congress might TRS, the faith people have in this party!

Do not worry!

CPM did not change its policy regarding Telengana. CPM and TRS are still political rivals as they had been for the past nine years. Are you confused looking at this picture? Read on.

All the opposition parties in the state (TRS, CPM, CPI, PRP and other small parties) excluding TDP have decided to work together to fight against the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) declared by the ruling party. All these parties were against SEZs’, as they believe that this is against the interests of the agricultural sector. So the parties have arranged a conference yesterday night and decided to work together. However, there are no signs on this unity continuing till the elections as these parties do not have any common policies in any other issue.

However, this meeting gained special importance not just because of CPM and PRP, but also Dr. Mitra. He has come as a representative of PRP and had a small chat with Raghavulu of CPM. Though it is not clear as to what they have discussed, I guess it should be definitely about a possible coalition between these parties in the next elections. Just to remind you, both these parties have made serious allegation on each other a few days back and also too their comments back yestrday