Thaindian News

Hyderabad, March 30 (IANS) Confusion prevailed among the constituents of the grand alliance of the opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh Monday, the last day of filing nominations for the 22 Lok Sabha and 145 assembly constituencies that go to polls April 16.
There seems to be no end to the trouble in the four-party alliance as several cadres of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) filed nominations even in the constituencies it allotted to its ally Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). They reportedly filed nomination with the mandatory ‘B form’ issued by their party leadership.

At least 30 TDP candidates are reported to have filed papers in the assembly constituencies left for TRS.

Angry over this development, TRS leader K. Chandrasekhara Rao rushed to TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu for talks and insisted that he withdraw all the candidates from constituencies allotted to TRS under the seat-sharing agreement.

TRS sources said the talks had failed as Naidu wanted TRS to withdraw candidates from some constituencies in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts.

Earlier, Chandrasekhara Rao told reporters there was no confusion and that the filing of nomination by few TDP cadres carried no validity as the leadership has to submit another ‘B form’ in April 2.

TRS is contesting 45 assembly and nine Lok Sabha seats in the Telangana region.

The latest row to hit the alliance surfaced hours after TDP sorted out problems with the two Left parties, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI).

The CPI-M had set a deadline for TDP to leave the constituencies which it had sought. Both CPI and CPI-M were also unhappy with TRS for fielding candidates in a few constituencies they sought themselves.

Meanwhile, hundreds of candidates from various parties filed their nominations on the last day. State Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao told reporters that 311 nominations for 42 Lok Sabha seats and 2,354 nominations for 294 assembly seats were received Monday. The break-up for the constituencies going to polls in the first phase was not available till the evening.

Prominent among those who filed their papers for Lok Sabha constituencies on the last day were TRS chief Chandrasekhara Rao (Mahbubnagar), TRS leader and actress Vijayshanti (Medak), Praja Rajyam general secretary and film producer Allu Aravind (Ankapalli) and CPI national secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy (Nalgonda).

The second phase of polls on April 23 will cover 20 Lok Sabha and 150 assembly constituencies.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has announced allotment of rail engine as election symbol to the Praja Rajyam of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi and of whistle to Lok Satta of former bureaucrat Jaiprakash Narayan. This followed last week’s order by the Supreme Court.