Rahul Gandhi to finalize the TDP-Congress alliance

Amaravathi: Is an alliance between the ruling TDP and the Congress almost ruled out in Andhra Pradesh? Congress senior leaders, after factoring in feedback from the cadre, appear to be veering round to the view that an alliance with the TDP in the State could prove counter-productive. Reliable sources confirmed to TNIE that the same was discussed at length at a meeting between Congress president Rahul Gandhi, State Congress president N Raghuveera Reddy and Congress State affairs in charge Oommen Chandy in New Delhi on Thursday.

Emerging from the meeting, Reddy told the media that the party’s strategy for the upcoming elections would be decided within a week. “We have explained the views of our party leaders from all the 175 constituencies to Rahul Gandhi,” he said and rather cryptically remarked, “there are leaders who are in favour of and against an alliance with TDP.”

It’s learnt that a report was submitted to Rahul explaining the pros and cons of the pact and the need to decide on the issue before Jan 15th so that the party could prepare for the polls for which a notification is likely after Feb 25th.

Sources said Reddy and co pointed out to Rahul the various disadvantages of the alliance such as the current anti-incumbency against the TDP, reluctance of traditional Congress voters to vote for the TDP, the likelihood of even die-hard cadre deserting the party if denied tickets and finally, the fear that if voters reject the alliance, whatever groundwork done in the last four-and-a-half-years to resurrect the party will go in vain.

At the same time, it was suggested to Rahul that the narrative for the elections should be firmly set around special category status for the State. Observing that Telangana polls were lost as they were turned into a clash between Andhra Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the State Congress chief stressed that it was imperative to turn the Andhra elections into Narendra Modi’s deception vs Andhras’ rightful struggle for special status.

The reasoning behind this being the rising popularity of Rahul vis-a-vis Modi in Andhra. Implicit in this argument is the suggestion that the elections should not be turned into a straight fight between Naidu and YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Interestingly, the Congress leaders, sources said, were of the view that Rahul will get the support of both the TDP and Jagan.

The State Congress has been able to complete 30 per cent of its door-to-door campaign in the State and finish a similar amount of work pertaining to booth-level panels thus far. Drawing Rahul’s attention to this fact, Reddy, the sources explained, told him that a decision on the alliance must be taken at the earliest before Jan 15 to give time for them to prepare for the polls. The final decision will be taken by Rahul and it will most likely be to go solo in AP despite Naidu being a partner in the Congress-led Front at the national level.