Political Diary

It will be a government of the grand alliance and not of the TDP, B V Raghavulu, CPM state secretary said. According to him, the grand alliance may fall short of simple majority but will still be able to form the government. In an informal chat with the media on Tuesday, Raghavulu said that the reports they had received from across the state gives them a feeling that efforts made by the alliance to defeat Congress party had paid dividends. The alliance would win enough seats to have a clear majority to form the government, he further added. Does it mean that there would be a hung assembly? To which Raghavulu replies that where is the question of hung, the alliance had contested with a clear understanding and it will be an alliance government which would include TRS. When pointed that TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao was causing confusion by his statements, Raghavulu said KCR only spoke about knocking on every door to achieve separate Telangana. The alliance partners and the leaders were clear about what they were going to do in the post poll scenario but it was the media which was giving new definitions to the statements made by KCR. TRS, he said has single point agenda, separate Telangana and to achieve it, KCR said, he would knock on every possible door. However, in the state the alliance partners were united and there was no split. Asked if he would volunteer to negotiate with PRP for supporting the alliance to form the government, the CPM secretary replied in negation. "We don't have to do that." On the other hand, since PRP had also taken an anti-Congress stand it should on its own come forward to support the alliance." Raghavulu refused to comment on the statement made by CPI state secretary K Narayana on Monday that he would negotiate with PRP to support TDP led government in the state on the condition of power sharing. He said that might be Narayana's personal opinion. CPM, he said, had a party line to follow and it would strictly adhere to it. The decision at national level was to defeat the Congress, both at the centre and in the state and the results will certainly show that the efforts had paid dividends. He however did not specify whether or not CPM would join the government