The Congress leaders in Telangana might have been blaming it on the manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the recent assembly elections, but they knew that the alliance with the Telugu Desam Party had done more damage to them in several constituencies.
But not all the Congress leaders can say this openly because the high command is still in friendly relationship with the TDP.
However, there are some leaders like former minister and Congress leader Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, who can call a spade a spade.
Komatireddy who attended the review meeting conducted by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee and AICC observers at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, categorically told the party leadership that there was no need for forging an alliance with the TDP in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
“I had told the party leadership long ago not to have an alliance with the TDP for the assembly elections. KCR could strongly take the message into the people that the alliances who could not come to an agreement on seat sharing properly would not be able to rule the state at all. And the people believed his words,” he said.
He opined that had the Congress contested on its own, it would have won at least 40-45 seats easily.
“People were in a state of confusion as to who would contest in their constituencies as the seat sharing deal was delayed till the eleventh hour. Leaders like me had to lose the elections only because of the alliance with the TDP. People asked me why the party had entered into an alliance in Nalgonda,” he said.
He suggested that the party should not to go for alliance at least in the Lok Sabha elections.
“If we go alone, we can easily win seven to eight LS seats,” he said, adding that if he was given the ticket for Nalgonda parliamentary seat, he would win it hands down.