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Congress party general secretary Digvijay Singh today said his party was preparing to contest in all the 119 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats in the Telangana region on its own.
He also said they would examine the prospects of electoral alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) if the latter’s leadership comes up with any concrete proposal.
Singh’s statement is viewed as an attempt to send out a strong signal to the TRS leadership, which had already angered the party by ruling out merger, that it was the Congress that was in command of the situation.
He also sought to morally corner TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) by saying he was surprised to see him going back on his word given to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that his party would be merged with the Congress after bifurcation.
“But we respect their political decision,” he said at a meet-the-press programme organised by the Hyderabad Press Club while making it amply clear that the TRS leadership cannot stretch the political bargain beyond its strength. There were reports suggesting that after refusing the merger with the Congress, the TRS was putting several preconditions for the electoral understanding, including staking claim for the chief ministership post elections.
But neither of the parties confirmed these reports and even Singh sought to downplay a question on whether the TRS had sought this for someone from the party.
There were also reports that a clarity on the alliance between the two parties would emerge only after the ensuing municipal elections as that would showcase their respective strength.
Singh said the party would also fight in all the 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the Seemandhra region as many competent people are available to contest from the party ticket. He said majority leaders in Seemandhra stood by the decision of the Congress leadership on bifurcation though former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy disappointed the party.
Responding to a question, he said the special tax incentives for new investments would be available for ten years in the backward regions of both Seemandhra and Telangana.
Anna's name being exploited
Singh said anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare should keep away from politics and political parties as he was being repeatedly exploited by people for their own political ends. "First it was Arvind Kejriwal. I said this when Kejriwal had associated with Anna's movement. Now, it is some other leader," he said while referring to the recent meeting with Mamata Banerjee.
On the latest spat with the media, he accused Kejriwal of practicing street dictatorship whenever things did not fall in his line.
