Congress Rules Out Alliance With Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP in AP

Congress will contest both Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections without TDP.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (left) and Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

(Photo: PTI)

After its pre-poll alliance with the TDP in neighbouring Telangana came a cropper, the Congress on Wednesday, 23 January, asserted it would contest on its own in the upcoming elections in Andhra Pradesh, both to the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha.

AICC General Secretary and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy made the assertion while making it clear that the Congress will not have any alliance with the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh.

"We will contest all 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats alone. The TDP allied with us only at the national level, so we will have no truck (with it) in the state," he maintained.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the PCC office-bearers in Amaravati, Chandy said they would meet again on 31 January to discuss about the poll preparations.

The state Congress also decided to undertake a bus yatra in all the 13 districts in February, he said.

APCC President N Raghuveera Reddy said they left the decision of electoral alliances to AICC President Rahul Gandhi.

However, he hastened to add that the Congress would fight the elections in Andhra Pradesh on its own.

The Congress, which formed a pre-poll alliance with the TDP and two others for the recent Assembly polls in Telangana, ended up with 19 seats, down from 21 in 2014, while the TDP won two seats as against 15 last time.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won 88 seats in the 119-member Assembly to retain power.