Chiru officially ties up with Congress

Hyderabad, June 02: A new realignment of political forces in Andhra Pradesh was formalised on Tuesday. The Praja Rajyam Party ( PRP), founded by matinee idol Chiranjeevi, officially announced it will be Congress’ ally from now on.

In a meeting held at Chiru’s residence, the PRP executive committee endorsed the party president’s decision to forge an alliance with the Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha ( RS) elections and also in future.

“ We have unanimously decided to extend our cooperation to the Congress in the RS elections to be held on June 11, following the request from Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Our party MLAs will vote for Congress candidates,” former MP and PRP spokesman C. Ramachandraiah said.

He said executive committee members also discussed about the alliance keeping in mind forthcoming elections to local bodies and municipalities.

“ For the time being, we have confined to the RS elections. We will review our decision from time to time. Our fight against the government on people’s issues will continue,” Ramachandraiah said.

He said Chiranjeevi would leave for New Delhi this week to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior cabinet colleagues to discuss issues such as the Polavaram project and to consolidate the PRP- Congress alliance.

PRP sources said the mood in the party was upbeat after Chiranjeevi met Sonia on Saturday.

“ It was more or less agreed to have a long- term alliance with the Congress as it would benefit both parties,” a PRP leader said.

But some PRP leaders, including some MLAs, disapproved of Chiranjeevi’s decision. Sources said nine of the 18 MLAs stayed away from the PRP executive meeting on Tuesday.

“ Some of them, including Allagadda MLA Shobha Nagi Reddy and her husband Bhuma Nagi Reddy, are close to Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s camp, while others such as MLA Ghanta Srinivasa Rao and former MLA K Subbarayudu are inclined towards the Telugu Desam Party ( TDP),” party sources said.

“ We have still four years to go and we do not know what would be the equation within the Congress by then. We have to maintain our identity so that we can have a better bargaining power.

It is better we do not talk about the merger and let us confine ourselves to the alliance for the time being,” Chiru reportedly told party leaders enthusiastic about the merger.

He said the merger would help both parties in preventing the TDP from staging a comeback in Andhra region in the event of the formation of Telangana.

The alliance would also help the Congress high command to keep a check on Kadapa MP Jaganmohan, who has been adopting a belligerent stand against the K. Rosaiah government.

—Agencies