CPM Snaps Ties With Congress, To Contest 17 Seats

Ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections, the CPI (M) today said that it would not join hands with the Congress.

It said that it was ready for a lone battle as it had not been given the seats it had asked for by the Congress.

It has decided to contest in 17 Assembly seats, in the combined Khammam, Warangal, Nalgonda, Medak and Hyderabad districts. CPI (M) leader Thammineni Veerabhadram said the party would contest for the Bhadrachalam, Aswaraopeta, Paleru, Madhira, Waira, Khammam, Sattupalli, Miryalguda, Nalgonda, Nakrekal, Bhuvanagiri, Huzurnagar, Kodad, Janagama, Ibrahimpatnam, Patancheru and Musheerabad Assembly seats.

Veerabhadram said that the CPI (M) had won eight times in a row in the Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency. "Despite that, the Congress did not give us the seat, as it was a seat that it currently had. We requested Paleru too, but the Congress rejected that, too," he said.

He said that the Congress had also proposed to give the Miryalaguda and the Wyra seats to the CPI (M), but kept delaying the final decision on it. He said that there was no need for the CPI (M) to go for alliances in such a humiliating manner.

On the alliance of the CPI with the Congress, Veerabhadram said that the CPI (M) would not contest in the constituencies allotted to the CPI.