Congress, TDP may contest Telengana bypolls

The by elections to 12 assembly constituencies in Telangana districts are likely to witness multi-cornered contests despite the warning of the pro-Telangana activists that those who sacrificed their seats for Telangana should be unanimously elected.

Congress general Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh Veerappa Moily for the first time made it clear that the Congress will contest the by-elections in Telangana, the main opposition Telugu Desam Party has also started preliminary discussions on the issue. 

Ten Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLAs and one each of TDP and the BJP had quit their seats to mount pressure on the central government to initiate the process of formation of Telangana state. Though the Telangana Joint Action Committee had given a to all the 119 MLAs from the region belonging to various parties to resign to create a constitutional and political crisis in the state but others, specially Congress and TDP MLAs did not follow suit.

The JAC as well as the Joint Action Committee of students of Osmania University and Kakatiya Universities had announced that those who resigned for the sake of Telangana state will be elected unanimously and no one else should enter the fray.

 But a strong group in the Congress headed by the state Congress President D Srinivas was willing to take the risk and contest the elections. Srinivas himself was keen to fight the by elections from his home constituency Nizamabad which he had lost to the BJP's Lakshminarayana.

Moily's statement that Congress will contest has come at a time when Srinivas was busy holding consultations with the leaders from Karimnagar, Warangal and Adilabad on the issue. When asked about the ultimatum of students JAC against contesting the elections, Moily said that he was not aware of it.

Kakatiya JAC has threatened that if any other party enters the fray, it will be taught a befitting lesson.

Meanwhile TDP President Chandrababu Naidu also had a teleconference on Monday with assembly constituency in charge and mandal level leaders on the question of contesting the by elections. Sources said that while the Telangana leaders in the party were of the view that they should not contest, the leaders of Andhra and Rayalaseema region were mounting pressure that the party should contest as Congress was also going to fight the by poll.

The Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla has announced that the by elections in 12 assembly constituency of Telangana will be held before August 30.