Telengana issue leading to new political alignments?

By R.J. Rajendra Prasad

HYDERABAD, JUNE 28. A new alignment of political forces is taking place on the eve of elections to panchayat institutions in Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu Desam and the BJP, which have an uneasy relationship because of the latter's ambivalent attitude towards the Telengana issue, are being isolated. The Congress, the CPI and the CPI(M) are having seat adjustments, with the APCC president, Mr. M. Sathyanarayana Rao, announcing that his party will give 20 per cent seats to the two Communist parties.

The Telengana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) says it will not have any truck with the Congress unless the latter adopts a resolution favouring a separate Telengana State. But several Congress and BJP MLAs, as well as the People's War Group have extended their tacit support to the issue.

On Tuesday, Mr. Sathyanarayana Rao met the secretary of the CPI State Committee, Mr. S. Sudhakara Reddy, and the CPI(M) leader, Mr. Koratala Sathyanarayana, and agreed to avoid mutual contest. Seat adjustments have to take place at the district level because there is contest - on party basis - in about 14,000 seats at the mandal parishad territorial constituency-level, and in about 1,100 seats at the zilla parishad-level. Those elected will, however, have no executive powers except to participate in the election of chairpersons of zilla parishads (ZP) and mandal parishads (MP).

Congress MLA, Mr. Palvai Govardhana Reddy, said the party would support some TRS candidates to defeat the TDP-BJP combine.

The CWC member, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, during his recent visit here made it clear that the party could not be hustled into taking a decision on smaller states because of panchayat elections and that Telengana cannot become an issue in this elections.

The Congress MLAs from the Telengana region say that they have the support of some influential members of the party in Delhi who have advised them to go ahead with demonstrations at the village- level.

The TRS has the support of a number of organisations of Left intellectuals, besides the People's War Group and the Janasakthi faction. Its president, Mr. K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who has requisitioned a helicopter for his election campaign, has adopted a novel method to raise funds for the campaign. He attended a dinner where the invitees had to pay Rs. 11,000 each. A marriage hall was booked and a bank opened a counter to accept donations.

Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao had said recently that the NRIs in the U.S. (from Telengana) had offered Rs. 1 crore for his cause while those from the Gulf countries had offered Rs. 50 lakhs. He says his strategy is to win a large number of mandals and ZPs now, and all the 16 seats in the Lok Sabha from the region later and achieve a separate State. He, however, has said the panchayat elections will not be treated as a referendum.

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