TDP to finalise its candidates for Telangana polls soon

: The Telugu Desam Party will finalise its candidates for the coming assembly elections in neighbouring Telangana in a day or two, state unit president L Ramana said Thursday.

As part of the 'grand alliance' with Congress and other parties, the TDP is expected to be allotted 14 out of the 119 seats in the Telangana Assembly.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with party supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here Thursday afternoon, Ramana said a list of proposed candidates had been submitted to Naidu for approval.

Our main objective is victory (in polls) rather than the number of seats. We will touch double-digit in the second Telangana Assembly and play a crucial role, Ramana said replying to a question.

Party sources indicated TDP was concentrating only on seats where it has a possibility of victory.

Claiming that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti had lost the confidence of the people, Ramana expressed confidence that the Maha Kutami (grand alliance of Congress, TDP, Telangana Jana Samiti and CPI) would win the December 7 polls.

People lost faith in TRS and (Chief Minister) K Chandrasekhar Rao. The grand alliance has been formed to teach a lesson to KCR, he added.

To a question on seat-sharing among the alliance partners, the TDP leader said everything would be sorted out soon and a statement issued in a couple of days.

AICC in-charge of Telangana affairs R C Khuntia has said the seat-sharing had been finalised and it would announced after approval by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier, Ramana accompanied by other Telangana TDP leaders, including Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, conferred with Naidu at his riverfront residence here and discussed the poll strategies.