Vijayawada : Will the AP Congress contest all the 175 seats in the state? If so, who would be benefitted and who would be adversely affected? This is the big issue that has become a matter of discussion in political circles.
The party rank and file which was in limbo all these ten years now sees a ray of hope to bounce back politically. The party leadership is still not clear on how many seats it would win but the general thinking in the APCC is that they should contest in all the 175 seats.
The electoral scenario would become clear once the newly appointed PCC chief YS Sharmila would visit the state later this week. Sharmila at present is busy with the arrangements of her son Raja Reddy’s engagement slated for Thursday and marriage on February 17.
Party sources said that she would be coming to the state later this week and would hold meetings with local leaders from different districts. The state unit would then take a decision on where to contest and will send a list of possible candidates to AICC for final consideration and approval.
It will also have to speed up the manifesto and organise public meetings to be attended by AICC leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi. The AICC, which had given 6G manifesto for Telangana, is likely to announce more sops and it could be 8G or 9G manifesto, the state leaders feel.
In the meantime, many dissident leaders of YSRCP who could not get tickets and were previously in the Congress party are said to be in touch with the state Congress leaders and would announce joining the party once Sharmila takes charge and starts her political activity.
Though some of them wanted to jump over to either TDP or Jana Sena, they could not do so because both the parties are very cautious in their approach and are not promising any seat to anyone who wants to join now. Hence, all these dissident leaders of YSRCP are waiting for Sharmila to take charge.
The Congress leaders say that this time a triangular contest would be inevitable for Assembly elections. They also feel that the BJP would remain neutral and may not contest many seats in the Assembly
