Leaders of Congress and its electoral allies in Telangana exuded a hitherto unseen confidence at yesterdays’ press conference in Hyderabad of winning Friday’s Assembly polls. Polling picked up late in the evening and spilled over beyond the stipulated time at many booths to finally reach a tally of a healthy 73.2%.

Congress, Telegu Desam Party (TDP), TJS, CPI and MRPS have forged a formidable alliance in an effort to upset the ruling Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) Govt. led by its president K. Chandrasekara Rao. BJP is going it alone in the elections by contesting from all the 119 constituencies. As such, a three-cornered fight is witnessed.

Addressing a news conference in Hyderabad yesterday, leaders of the ‘maha alliance’ contended that the victory of the alliance has become a ‘foregone conclusion’ and added that they now had to make plans as to where to hold the swearing-in ceremony. “Only the location is to be finalized now, everything else has already been finalized (by God),” said MRPS leader Madiga even as he warmly hugged PCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, who appeared pleased with the former’s words.

“We would certainly win at least 80 out of the 119 seats in contention,” asserted Madiga. “We are to gain the most by transfer of votes and we can judge it by the response from the voters,” he pointed out. On his part, Reddy ridiculed the chief-minister’s claim that TRS would win more than 100 seats. “In my opinion, the TRS won’t get more than 30 seats,” he quipped.

Going further, Reddy asserted that the Congress would ‘sweep’ the Assembly polls held across the country in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram besides Telangana during the past fortnight by making it 5-0.