Mahakutami talks floundering

​Hyderabad: Talks on seat-sharing among the alliance partners in Mahakutami have remained inconclusive on Saturday. The leaders of the proposed front could not come to an agreement. 

The Congress held a meeting with its alliance partners and invited Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Jana Samithi. But, it left out the CPI, one of the constituents in the alliance. 

TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Telangana Jana Samithi president M Kodandaram and Telangana Telugu Desam president L Ramana participated in the talks. 

According to sources, they discussed the seat-sharing issue. The Telugu Desam Party and TJS expressed their opposition to announcement of the Congress list, while allotting 14 and 8 seats respectively to them. 

The leaders decided to meet again on Sunday to strike a deal as the notification for the polls in the State would be issued on Monday. The Congress leaders said that a breakthrough would be achieved on Sunday. 

On the other hand, the CPI continued to maintain a tough stand against the Congress on allocation of seats. CPI State secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said that they did not hold any talks with the Congress. 

Venkat Reddy said his party was ready to contest in five seats and said that it would have friendly contest with Congress candidates in two more constituencies apart from the three which had been given by the Grand Old Party. 

The CPI-M, which formed the Bahujana Left Front, has proposed that the CPI join the alliance. The CPI-M State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram held discussions with CPI State secretary Venkat Reddy and made certain proposals. 

According to sources, the CPI-M has proposed that both the parties should not field the candidates against each other and contest as may seats as possible. The CPI leaders said they would discuss the issue.