Telangana assembly polls: Left parties likely to go to polls alone

Speaking to the media, CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram felt that the Congress leadership was not serious regarding poll alliance with CPI(M)

Khammam: The Left parties, CPI and CPI (M), which were engaged in talks with Congress over a pre-poll alliance, seem to be now compelled to go alone in the Assembly elections, if the statements of its leaders were any indication.

Speaking to the media, CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram felt that the Congress leadership was not serious regarding poll alliance with CPI(M). The party had asked for Miryalaguda, Bhadrachalam, Palair, Madhira and Ibrahimpatnam. But Congress leadership was dilly-dallying. With such an attitude, the alliance might not be possible. If the Congress makes it clear that it would not go along with CPM in the elections then the party would take a call on fielding its candidates in the Assembly elections, he said.

---

As Congress fielded ex-MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy for Palair seat, the CPM had agreed to contest in Wyra. Similarly, the party gave up its claim for Bhadrachalam seat as it was a Congress sitting seat. In Tripura, the CPM gave up its sitting seat for Congress for the sake of political alliance, but in Telangana, the Congress was not ready to honour the CPM’s request for seats, Veerabhadram said.

Discussions on poll alliance from the CPM side were over. The ball was in the Congress court. The discussions would continue if Congress was ready to allot Wyra and Miryalaguda seats to CPM. Despite ideological differences with Congress, CPM was ready for an alliance to defeat BJP. The party would take a final call after the State committee meeting on November 2, he said.

Similarly, CPI which was said to have asked for Munugode, Wyra, Kothagudem, Bellampalli and Husnabad seats settled for Kothagudem and Chennur. But it was rumoured that Congress was likely to field Vivek Venkata Swamy in Chennur and ex-MLA Jalagam Venkat Rao in Kothagudem.

In view of these developments CPI and CPM were likely to go polls together. And a decision in that regard would be taken in a joint meeting of the party leaders in Hyderabad on November 2, sources said.