Political Diary

As withdrawal of nominations draws to a close on Thursday, fresh trouble is brewing within the Telugu Desam, with some of its candidates insisting on staying in the race in Assembly segments allotted to Telangana Rashtra Samiti. These candidates who were given B forms by the party on the last day of filing nominations on Monday as part of a strategy to counter the TRS now argue that they would continue as the latter had deliberately fielded weak candidates in these constituencies to help the Congress. Some senior party leaders from Telangana and the candidates are building pressure on Mr. Naidu to convince TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao.