Now that the much-touted ‘grand alliance’ of Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has been blown into smithereens by the ruling K. Chandrasekhara Rao-led Telangana Rashitrya Samithi (TRS) in the just concluded Assembly polls in Telangana, it remains to be seen whether the two allies (of convenience) remain allies during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls scheduled to take place during April-May next year.

Congress and TDP, who had been bitter with each other for long in Andhra Pradesh, struck a clearly opportunistic alliance in Telangana (carvd out of Andhra Pradesh a few years back) with the single objective of keeping KCR out of power. Now that the results are out and with TRS winning a whopping 88 seats out of 119 and relagating the Congress-TDP combine to a poor strength of 21, observers point out that it was high time the Congress rethought about its poll strategy for Lok Sabha polls.

Shrewd Congress poll managers are aware of a ‘weakened’ Chandrababu Naidu, the TDP chief, and realize that they might now have an ‘upper hand’ in dealing with him in future (if the alliance continues) in deciding about the number of seats the parties might contest in polls. Naidu, who has been meeting many parties during the past few weeks to stitch up a national-level alternative to the BJP at the Centre, is certainly a worried man now.

It’s true that Congress’s vote share has dipped in Telangana as compared to 2014, which proves that people hadn’t taken very well to its alliance with the TDP. People haven’t forgotten Naidu’s opposition to the formation of Telangana as they have sent out a clear message that they won’t entertain any party/individual who they assume might be detrimental to the State’s interests!