TJS leader meets Rahul, seeks 17 seats

Hyderabad, Nov 2 (IANS) Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) leader M. Kodandaram on Friday called on Congress President Rahul Gandhi and demanded 17 seats for the party in next month's Assembly elections in Telangana.

A day after the Congress announced that it will leave 24 seats for its three allies in the grand alliance, Kodandaram urged Gandhi to formalize the alliance and finalise seat sharing among its constituents.

Kodandaram told reports after the meeting in New Delhi that the seat sharing talks among the allies had not concluded.

Claiming that TJS was strong in at least 25 constituencies, he said the party was keen to field candidates in 17 constituencies. He said the delay in giving a shape to the alliance and finalizing the candidates could affect the prospects of the alliance.

Congress' Telangana unit president Uttam Kumar Reddy announced on Thursday that the party had decided to contest 95 seats in the 119-member Assembly. It has left 24 seats for allies - 14 seats for Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and 10 for TJS and Communist Party of India (CPI).

Kodandaram, a former professor of Osmania University, was one of the prominent faces of the Telangana movement. 

He headed the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), comprising various groups fighting for the separate state. After formation of Telangana state, he fell out with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrshekhar Rao.

Earlier this year, Kodandaram turned TJAC into a political party and vowed to end what he calls dictatorial rule of TRS.

Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held on December 7.