The Congress party has stated that they won’t name any chief ministerial candidate before the polls. The party in-charge of Congress in Telangana, R C Khuntia has clarified that the party has never before mentioned the name of a particular candidate and it is doing the same. He said,” The election campaign in the state will be led by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President, Uttam Kumar, but the chief ministerial candidate will be decided after the assembly elections”, reported PTI. Congress Party will be contesting the election with the Communist Party of India, Telangana Jan Samithi and Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party. Mr. Khuntia added,” “It’s not the question of numbers; it’s a question of winnability”. While the Congress is the major partner, the three other parties would get “preference” in segments where they are in a better position. He also said that the number of seats has not been finalized yet.
After the dissolution of assembly in Telangana, all eyes are set on the next election to be held in the state. However, the Election Commission has not come up with a scheduled date for the election. The term of the Telangana government was going to end next year and the polls were likely to be held in April-May which would have coincided with the Lok Sabha elections. According to analysts, the move to dissolve the current government might have been a calculated one as there was a possibility that the current KCR led government would lose the next election.
Although TDP has joined hands with Congress for the upcoming election, in 2014 assembly election it fought in alliance with BJP and won a 15 percent vote share while Congress won only 21 seats out of 119 and had a vote share of more than 25 percent. Despite the Congress party giving nod to the formation of Telangana, the people supported K Chandrashekhar Rao. The Congress party is eyeing for the votes of Dalits, backward classes, tribals and minorities. The alliance with TDP might also help Congress to a great extent.