Hyderabad, April 5: It’s a do-or-die battle for the ruling Congress and the Mahakutami led by the Telugu Desam in the Telangana region. The fate of 119 seats in the region will be decided on April 16 during the first phase of elections.
Though the Praja Rajyam has fielded candidates in all the segments, it is struggling to make an impact due to the strong presence of both the Congress and the Mahakutami partners.
It is believed that out of the 119 seats, the MIM will not only win its five seats, but may also increase its tally to seven, thus making 112 seats available for the Congress and Mahakutami.
The Congress, which is contesting all the seats without any alliance, is hopeful of winning at least 50 out of the 112 seats and get another 100 seats in the two other regions of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra to cross the magic figure of 148 to form the government. The division of anti-government vote among the Grand Alliance and the Praja Rajyam is likely to help the Congress. In the last election, the Congress won 42 seats in the region. It is hopeful of reaching the 50 seat mark this time.
The party is also heavily depending on the development mantra in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar districts where it feels there is a strong pro-Telangana sentiment. It is also hoping that the differences in the Mahakutami will work in its favour.
Congress leaders do admit privately that if it doesn’t win 50 seats in Telangana, it would be almost impossible to form a government. At the same time they do admit that the Praja Rajyam is not picking up as expected and the Mahakutami will get more seats than the Congress. On the other hand, the Mahakutami is making headway in the T region despite differences among the alliance partners over the seat-sharing issue and backlash by rebels.
According to insiders in the Grand Alliance, it will win at least 80 to 90 out of the 112 seats. They admit that the PR will make an impact in central coastal areas and parts of north-Andhra. The TD would have swept the elections in that area if the PR had not been formed. The Congress and the Grand Alliance are not sure how the PR will fare in districts like East and West Godavari which account for 34 seats and Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam with the same number of seats.
Hence, Telangana has become a crucial region for the two main contenders for the Chief Minister’s post.
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