The Congress party seems to have realized the costly mistake it had made by entering into an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in the recent assembly elections in Telangana.
While the Telangana Jana Samithi and CPI were insignificant partners, the real trouble to the Congress came from the TDP, as Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao fully exploited the Telangana self-respect sentiment by showing the TDP as villain of the piece. The result is there for everybody to see.
After the ignominious defeat in the assembly elections, both the TDP and Congress went into a state of shock and despair and no leader from either party is willing to talk about the alliance now.
On the other hand, TJS president M Kodandaram and CPI leaders completely went into political oblivion.
Now, the Congress leadership is said to be regretting entering into alliance with the TDP. Its campaign committee chairman Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka hinted that the Maha Kootami is as good as being wound up.
“Our understanding was only for the assembly elections. We have not thought of extending it to Panchayat Raj elections and Lok Sabha elections yet,” he said.
In fact, the Congress has not yet come out with any action plan till now for the panchayat raj elections, as the leadership is yet to come to terms with the debacle in the assembly elections.
On the other hand, the TRS has already started making preparations for the panchayat raj elections, followed by MPTC and ZPTC elections.
Going by the preparedness of the party, it looks like the TRS will have a clean sweep of panchayat raj elections also!