Left, TDP and TRS see council polls as unity test case

Joint MeetinG: CPI State secretary K Narayana and CPM State secretary B V Raghavulu sharing a lighter moment at a joint meeting of the Left parties in
V V Balakrishna
First Published : 05 Jan 2009 12:00:19 PM IST
Last Updated :

HYDERABAD: As a prelude to seat-sharing in the next Assembly elections, the Left-TDP-TRS combine is considering elections to the Legislative Council as a rehearsal for them.

All the four parties have come to a broad understanding on alliances in the Council elections, likely to be held in March.

The elections were necessitated for two Graduate seats, as TRS MLC K Dilip resigned and the term of another MLC K Nageswar would expire soon.

The four parties will support the same candidates in the elections.

At a coordination meeting held at the CPM office here today, the Left parties decided to support the two candidates.

The coordination meeting was attended by CPM State secretary BV Raghavulu and CPI state secretary K Narayana.

The Left meetings will discuss the seat-sharing issue for the Assembly elections in their next meeting, according to a CPI leader.

As the TRS has almost decided to join the TDP-Left combine, it is expected to make an announcement before the notification is issued for the Council elections. The Left parties also made it clear that they would not demand more number of seats from allies, if the TRS too joined their combine.

According to sources, the Left and the TDP would have a joint meeting after Sankranti on the seat-sharing issue. In the meantime, the Left leaders decided to launch joint agitations along with the TDP and the TRS on various issues, including `Big Fish scam’.

The Left leaders will meet TDP and TRS leaders on January 10 on Council elections.

Today’s Left meeting opined that the Government weaknesses were exposed in the recent ZPTC elections. The resignations of two ministers were indicative of the fact that Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had lost his conf idenc e to f ac e the next elections.

CPM State secretary BV Raghavulu said the Congress’ defeat was inevitable in the next elections. CPI State secretary K Narayana said countdown had started for the end of Rajasekhara Reddy’s misrule.