After Uttar Pradesh, Congress to fight alone in Andhra Pradesh, officially snaps up alliance with TDP

The Congress has officially ruled out an alliance with TDP in Andhra Pradesh not just for the Lok Sabha elections but also for the assembly polls.

The decision has been announced a day after Chandrababu Naidu and Rahul Gandhi met in New Delhi on Tuesday night.

The party will contest all 175 assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats alone. Sources say that the party feels it will have similar repercussions in the state based on what had transpired in Telangana state polls after it fought in a coalition which included the TDP.

Oommen Chandy, APCC chief said, "The Congress will contest for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats." 

The Congress had allied with a number of parties including the TDP, the Telangana Jana Samithi, CPI. The alliance was called the Prajakutami and it faced a humiliating loss in the Telangana assembly polls in December 2018.

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The alliance break-up in Andhra Pradesh comes after Congress was left in cold in Uttar Pradesh.

The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, who confirmed an alliance for the upcoming elections on Saturday, announced that they have decided to reject Rahul Gandhi and his party, stating them coming to power is equivalent to BJP coming back to power. 

"We have not included Congress despite knowing that since independence, Congress has only ruled for a long time. Farmers and different sections of society have suffered, corruption was at a high. Congress coming to power and BJP coming to power is tantamount to the same. Both parties have been complicit in Defence scams. First Bofors cost the Congress party its government and now, BJP will suffer a similar fate because of the Rafale scam. Votes don't transfer when allying with Congress, they go to BJP instead, hence we're not including it in our alliance," Mayawati had said.

The seat-sharing formula between the parties sees SP and BSP fighting in 38 seats each in the 80 Lok Sabha seats. Out of the remaining four seats, the gathbandhan has set aside two for their allies (not yet disclosed), while they have decided to not fight in the other two (Rae Bareli and Amethi), leaving them vacant for the Congress.

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