The Hindu : Congress, TRS talks likely after January 17

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress, TRS talks likely after January 17

By W. Chandrakanth

HYDERABAD, JAN. 13. The seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) may begin any time after January 17 as the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, is planning a trip to New Delhi around the time.

The Congress is in no great hurry, but it does not want to send wrong signals to potential allies, it is learnt.

Now that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Executive has made its preference for early elections official, the issue of seat sharing becomes that much tricky as the State is all set to go in for simultaneous elections.

Pranab Mukherjee and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, have informally begun telephonic talks with TRS leaders. The Congress, being a major player, has to accommodate the demands of not only the TRS, but also other probable poll allies like the CPI and the MIM.

But it would not, at any cost, part with a lion's share of seats in the negotiations, it is maintained.

While the Congress may sufficiently accommodate the TRS, considering its `strength', the latter "could not expect us to entertain certain non-negotiable issues at this juncture," a senior Congress leader has remarked. One non-negotiable issue here is the demand for inclusion of separate Telangana in its manifesto. The Congress would do its best to convince the TRS about its commitment to the cause.

On the TRS demand that a Telangana leader be made Chief Minister if the Congress returned to power, the view is that the decision must be left to the legislators and the All India Congress Committee (AICC), not to "outsiders." The APCC leaders would be involved only at the stage of discussing the nitty-gritty once a broader understanding is reached on the number of seats to be shared.

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Andhra Pradesh