Even as the filing of nominations began in the 17 lok Sabha and 119 Assembly constituencies of Telangana on Wednesday, there is no sign of the list of candidates of any of the major political parties in the region. The process of filing of nomination will be continue till April 9, nomination papers will be scrutinised next day and April 12 will the be the last day of withdrawal.
However, clear battle lines are emerging and the region is going to witness a three-cornered contest between Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, and TDP-BJP alliance.
Apparently every party was waiting for the rival to make the first move hoping to field a better candidate and also avoid the possibility of any dissidence and largescale exodus of the disappointed aspirants. Only Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) has announced the list of seven candidates and CPI(M) of 12 candidates for the Assembly.
While the Congress party’s exercise of finalising the candidates is on in New Delhi and party sources said that it had finalised the candidates for all but only 15 Assembly constituencies. As the party has agreed to give one lok Sabha and four Assembly seats to Communist Party of India, Congress election committee is focusing its attention on the remaining seats.
The general secretary and in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh said that first list of candidates will be announced on Friday.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was also busy in finalising the list as it had become clear that it will have to go alone in the elections. After the party shut the doors on Congress party, the BJP has also ruled out any tie up with the TRS leaving the regional party completely isolated. TRS was also likely to announce first list of its candidate of Friday.
MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said that he will announce the second list of candidates in next couple of days. Owaisi himself will be seeking re-election for third consecutive term from Hyderabad lok Sabha constituency.
As far as the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP are concerned, they are still trying to reach an amicable deal on seat sharing. Despite the two days of hectic parlyes in New Delhi, an agreement is eluding them. But as the top leadership of both the parties have committed themselves to a tie up, the two sides are likely to announce a deal on Thursday.
According to the latest indication, the TDP has agreed to give 8 lok Sabha and 48 to 50 Assembly seats in Telangana region. While the two parties have identified 30 Assembly seats to be given to the BJP, exercise was on to identify the remaining seats.
The lS seats in which BJP was interested in Telangana include Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Chevella and Malkajgiri and Warangal.
But TDP has agreed to leave Malkajgiri seat for Jayprakash Narayan of lS. On the whole the TDP is likely to be left with only 8 lok Sabha and around 65 of the 119 Assembly seats.
In Seemandhra, however, the agreement is eluding the two parties as the BJP was demanding five lok Sabha and 15 Assembly seats, the TDP was willing to give only three lok Sabha seats of Kakinada, Narsapur and Rajampet. But BJP is also insisting on Visakhapatanam and Vijaywada.
Prakash Javdekar, election in charge of the BJP for Telangana and Andhra said that discussions were taking more time because of the changed political situation in the State. However he ruled out the possibility of BJP’s tie-up with the TRS.
TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has convened Politburo meeting on Thursday afternoon where the party was likely to put its seal of approval on seat sharing agreement.
TDP was in high spirits after the latest opinion poll by CNN-IBN-CSDS-lokniti showed it to be ahead of all other parties in the lok Sabha elections. The survey projected that the TDP can bag 13 to 19 lok Sabha seats in entire Andhra Pradesh followed by YSR Congress at 9 to 15 seats. Congress and TRS were likely to share 4 seats each. Most of the seats for the TDP were likely to come from Seemandhra where it was locked in a direct fight with YSRCP.
Parties were also delaying the releasing the list of candidates fearing that any adverse reaction will have fall out on the Panchayat Raj elections due in less than ten days.