Congress Enters Alliance With CPI, Gives It Kothagudem Seat

The Congress, which believes that the communists can influence the results in some Assembly constituencies, has decided to let the CPI contest the Kothagudem Assembly seat instead of a candidate of its own party, as part of an alliance agreement.

Talks were held with the CPI on Monday. TPCC chief Revanth Reddy himself went to the CPI office and held talks with key CPI leaders Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao and Chada Venkat Reddy. After discussions that lasted for more than an hour, the CPI said yes to the alliance with the Congress.

After the talks, Reddy said that the Congress' talks with the CPI had been successful, and that the high command had agreed to let the CPI contest the Kothagudem Assembly seat and also give two MLC seats to the CPI if the Congress came to power.

"We have held discussions upon the instructions of the AICC. We finally came to an agreement. The CPI is ready to walk with us. The CPI will contest from Kothagudem," he said.

Reddy called upon the Congress leaders and workers in the Kothagudem constituency to work for the victory of the CPI candidate. There is however uncertainity on how the Congress leaders and activists of Kothagudem will react to that.

CPI general secretary K Narayana spoke to the media after the talks. "The engagement happened a month ago. Now the wedding ceremony has been held. Our aim is to liberate Telangana from the hands of CM K Chandrashekar Rao, and we believe that the alliance with the Congress will help us with that. We have to fight against the farmhouse rule. The Congress' governance in Chhattisgarh has been good, and so we are comfortable with the alliance. Also, politics is being muddied with religion these days, and only the Congress can stop that. The BJP, the BRS and the Majlis are all the same. Kavitha's arrest was stopped because there is a nexus between the BJP and the BRS. There is a need to save the country and democracy from parties like that," Narayana said.

CPI State secretary Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao told the media that the CPI's alliance with the Congress had become inevitable. "We enter alliances based on what is best for the country. Even in Munugodu, we had formed an alliance to defeat the BJP. The people of Telangana are not in a position to even breathe today. There is no way for them to express their grievances in Telangana. The BRS government has suppressed the voices of questioning. The BRS operates in the State in the same autocratic manner as the BJP does at the Centre. There are headwinds for the Congress in the State, and we believe that the Congress will be a positive change for the State in these circumstances, which is why we have allied with the party. We are going with the Congress under unavoidable circumstances. The Congress will come to power in Telangana. We want this friendship to continue in the future. We hope that there will be some understanding with the CPM as well," he said.

The Congress high command and Revanth Reddy are also likely to hold talks with the leaders of the other Left party, the CPM, very soon. However, with 17 candidates and the manifesto already announced by the CPM, it is unclear how the talks between the Congress and the CPM will pan out.