Congress may exit from Peoples’ Front

Hyderabad: Though the Congress is keen to announce its candidates by end of this month for the Parliament elections, no clarity on the alliance with Peoples Front partners may delay it.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) leaders are non-committal on the alliance issue and left it to the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The issue of continuing with the Peoples Front has not figured in the recent meetings being held by the AICC.

According to sources, the TPCC is not keen on continuing with the Peoples Front and it may seek the support of the other alliance partners to Congress candidates in the Parliament polls.

The Congress has not initiated any discussion with the other partners in the Peoples Front so far and this indicates its aversion on continuing with the Front.

Party leaders said that the TPCC leaders are trying to convince the alliance partners to support the Congress candidates. However, it is doubtful whether the alliance partners, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Jana Samithi and Communist Party of India would accept the proposal of not fielding their candidates in the Parliament elections. 

Party leaders said that the Congress is not keen on continuing in the Peoples Front as it did not see any benefit. They said that if the results of the just-concluded Assembly elections are any indication, the  Congress would not get any benefit with the alliance.

In the Assembly elections, the Telugu Desam, Jana Samithi and CPI have failed to get votes. Telugu Desam got 3.4 per cent votes and the Jana Samithi did not even cross one per cent of votes.

This made the State Congress to rethink on having alliance with the Peoples Front partners in the Parliament polls. If the Congress wants to continue in the Front it has to concede about four to five seats to the TD, TJS and the CPI. 

According Congress leaders, Telugu Desam may ask about two to three seats, the TJS one and the CPI one. But the results of the Assembly elections indicate that the TD, TJS and CPI may not win at least one seat even with the support of the Congress.

On the other hand, the Congress would lose opportunity to contest in four to five seats out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the State. The TDP and the other alliance partners would demand seats where the Congress is also strong.

In case of continuing the alliance, TDP, TJS and CPI would ask Parliamentary constituencies like Khammam, Nalgonda and others where the Congress is equally strong.

Several senior leaders of the Congress are averse to the idea of continuing in the alliance. Leaders like DK Aruna, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and others have been opposing the alliance with TDP, TJS and the CPI.