HYDERABAD: The Congress high command is pinning high hopes on the party’s showing in Andhra Pradesh particularly in respect of Lok Sabha. The 29 seats it had won in 2004 had helped it form a coalition government at the Centre.
According to party sources, the party’s chances of forming the government at the Centre may receive a setback if it performs poorly in Andhra Pradesh.
Believing that Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy would deliver better results for the party in the current election, the high command had given him a free hand. Except in the 1983 and 1999, Andhra Pradesh was the only State from where the party had won a majority of Lok Sabha seats. Apart from the 29 seats won by the Congress, seven were won by its allies _ five by the TRS and two by the Left (CPI and CPM) in 2004. The party is expecting a good show this time too.
The sources further said that the high command was also pinning hopes on Tamil Nadu. With exit poll results predicting a majority seats for the AIADMK of Jayalalithaa, Congress leaders are on the job of contacting the latter to seek her support for formation of Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. Various national TV channels have predicted that the AIADMK would win more than 20 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats from the southern State.
With the counting process to begin in just a few hours, the Congress’s national leadership is sitting with fingers crossed, though busy doing and redoing the arithmetics, for cobbling up the majority numbers. It is well aware that electoral politics is, after all, a game of possibilities.