Grand alliance to come out with first list soon

Even as the grand alliance in Andhra Pradesh gears up to announce the first list of candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in two or three days’ time, confusion prevails over sharing of some seats among the four partners — Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Several rounds of talks, the latest one being on Thursday and a broad understanding over a number of seats notwithstanding, consensus over who will contest from where in respect of a few seats, eludes the fledgling alliance. Leaders of the alliance continue to be under tremendous pressure with claims and counter-claims over seats.

With the Congress almost ready with the list, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu stepped up efforts on Thursday to iron out differences by holding long discussions with TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and CPI (M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu. Mr. Naidu met the CPI State secretary, K. Narayana, on Wednesday.

‘Deal almost clinched’

TDP sources however contended that the deal had been clinched barring a few seats mostly in Telangana region. A final announcement is being deliberately withheld till the issue of formal notification calling for nominations. They said the differences would be sorted out in the next two days so that the list could be announced between March 21 and 23.