Congress in Telangana seeks CPI-M's support for its candidates

Hyderabad, April 19: Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday met state leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, seeking the party's support for the Congress candidates in next month's Lok Sabha elections.

The Deputy CM held talks with the CPI-M leaders at the party’s state office in Hyderabad and claimed that the CPI-M agreed to work with the Congress in the upcoming elections.

Vikramarka told media persons that the INDIA coalition is making efforts for a secular government in the country.

On the direction of the party leadership, he held talks with CPI-M state Secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram, CPI-M State Secretariat Committee member and former MLA Julakanti Ranga Reddy and other party leaders and requested them to support the candidates declared by Congress.

The Congress leader said he would convey the view expressed by the CPI-M leaders during the meeting to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who would respond to the same on Saturday.

Friday’s meeting took place a day after a CPI-M candidate filed the nomination for the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat.

The CPI-M had already announced that it would contest all 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state after the Congress refused to leave one Lok Sabha seat for it. It announced the candidature of Mohammed Jahangir from the Bhongir seat.

The Congress has already announced its candidate for Bhongir.

The CPI, which had fought the recent Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress, also wanted the ruling party to allot it the Nalgonda or Warangal Lok Sabha seat but the latter did not agree.

Both the left parties, which are part of the INDIA bloc at the national level, were unhappy with the approach of the Congress.

The Congress had made attempts to forge an alliance with Left parties during Assembly polls held in November 2023. It could strike an alliance only with the CPI as the CPI-M rejected the proposal after the Congress offered just one Assembly seat each to both parties.

The CPI accepted one seat (Kothagudem), contested the election, and won while the CPI-M contested 14 seats on its own but drew a blank.

In a related development, leaders of the CPI and the CPI-M and their cadre had Thursday joined the campaign led by Irrigation Minister, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy in favour of Congress candidate K. Raghuveer Reddy from Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency.