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‘Deal’ between Congress, TDP on Khairatabad, Therlam seats?

HYDERABAD: The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party are most likely to reach a quid pro quo arrangement with regard to the byelections in Khairatabad and Therlam Assembly constituencies.

Under this arrangement, the Congress may not field its candidate in Therlam constituency of Vizianagaram district which fell vacant owing to the death of the TDP MLA T. Jayaprakash.

The TDP will reciprocate by leaving the Kharaitabad seat uncontested as the bypoll was caused by the demise of Congress MLA P. Janardhan Reddy in December.

Sources said AICC president Sonia Gandhi gave the green signal to this proposal when Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and APCC president D. Srinivas called on her on Tuesday carrying the list of candidates for the byelections to 18 Assembly and four Lok Sabha seats.

Although the Congress did not confirm its official stand, TDP polit bureau member T. Devender Goud said his party would stick to its move to avoid ‘mutual contests’ in these two constituencies.

The TDP has already announced the candidature of T. Meenakshi Naidu for Therlam while the Congress has named PJR’s son P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy for Khairatabad.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) too has declared it would not contest the Khairatabad seat in deference to the late PJR as he was ‘a Telanganaite to the core’.

However, the Lok Satta party has rejected a plea by the Congress not to field its nominee from Khairatabad.

A Lok Satta spokesman said Mr. Srinivas telephoned the party chief Jayaprakash Narayan urging him not to contest following which the latter offered to consult his leaders. A meeting of the Greater Hyderabad unit of the party turned down the appeal saying the Lok Satta was opposed to ‘dynastic politics’.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister is likely to visit New Delhi once again this week to give finishing touches to the Congress party’s list.

Although Ms. Gandhi had cleared most of the names proposed by the APCC, there were hitches with regard to a few constituencies.

The Congress leadership had cleared the names of T. Jeevan Reddy, A. Indrakaran Reddy and Konda Surekha for Karimnagar, Adilabad and Hanamkonda Lok Sabha seats respectively, but could not persuade Tribal Welfare Minister D. S. Redya Naik to contest from Warangal. Similarly, the party was finding it difficult to identify suitable candidates for Musheerabad, Secunderabad and Siddipet Assembly seats.

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