After hectic lobbying, intense deliberations and hard bargaining, the four alliance partners of Maha Kootami or the grand alliance have finally come to an agreement on seat sharing on Thursday.
While the Congress would be contesting in 94 seats, it has left 25 seats for the allies, including 14 for Telugu Desam Party, eight for Telangana Jana Samithi and three for Communist Party of India.
However, the Congress will be effectively contesting only in 93 seats, as it has allotted one seat to Telangana Inti Party president Cheruku Sudhakar, who would be contesting on the Congress symbol, as his party did not get the official symbol from EC.
The first list 74 Congress candidates, along with that of Maha Kootami partners, would be released in New Delhi on November 10, party sources said.
TJS president M Kodandaram, who is presently touring Adilabad district, has been summoned to New Delhi to make the announcement.
Apparently, the Congress leadership was able to convince the alliance partners to agree for the number of seats it had offered by promising them prominent positions in the government and nominated bodies, if Maha Kootami comes to power.
Particularly, the CPI was very adamant on securing five seats, but the Congress high command convinced it by promising two MLC seats in the coming days.
In the morning, the Telangana TDP leaders had a meeting with party president N Chandrababu Naidu at Amaravati and discussed the Congress party offer.
“There is no issue with regard to the number of seats. We were only looking for clarity on a couple of constituencies allotted to us,” Telangana TDP leader and former MP Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said.