VIJAYAWADA: With elections round the corner, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has summoned APCC chief N Raghuveera Reddy and AICC in-charge for AP Oommen Chandy to New Delhi on January 3 with the sole agenda of discussing the pros and cons of the possible alliance between the Telugu Desam and the grand old party in Andhra Pradesh.
According to sources, the Congress president does not want to see the supposed alliance between the two parties to benefit others in the State as it is likely to affect the grand old party’s poll prospects at the national level. Though the Congress and TDP contested together in the recently held Assembly polls in Telangana, the Grand Alliance suffered defeat.
Those who are in the know of things in both the parties, opined that the aggressive campaigning by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in the Assembly elections, had stoked the Telangana sentiment, which proved to be advantageous to the TRS to retain power. Though there is no such strong sentiment in AP, Rahul is learnt to have decided not to take any chances. He is said to have advised Naidu to study whether the poll pact between the Congress and TDP will benefit the other parties in the State.
At present, the focus of Congress is to emerge victorious at the national level for which it needs more number of MPs. Hence, the APCC chief and the AICC in-charge have been asked to analyse all the pros and cons of possible alliance before the scheduled meeting in Delhi on January 3.