Indicating a political realignment in the Andhra Pradesh, Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and agreed to support Congress nominees in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Though Mr Chiranjeevi told mediapersons after the meeting in Delhi that he would announce his decision after consulting his colleagues in Hyderabad, it is learnt that he has agreed to support the ruling party and to give up the proposal to field his nominee.
If the Praja Rajyam, which has 16 members in the 294-member Assembly, fields a candidate, a contest will be thrust upon the Congress, which it does not want at this juncture.
Sources said that Mrs Gandhi and Mr Chiranjeevi also explored the possibility of continuing the alliance in the future.
“The reception we got at 10, Janpath and the cordial talks we had with Mrs Sonia Gandhi are positive signals and an inference can be drawn that we are moving closer to the Congress,” said a Praja Rajyam leader.
Mr Chiranjeevi, along with the party leaders K. Vidyadhara Rao, C. Ramachandraiah and B. Vedavyas, reached Delhi on Saturday afternoon and had a detailed discussion with senior leader Veerappa Moily and the Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel before moving to Mrs Gandhi’s house. The meeting lasted for half-an-hour.
Emerging from the Congress president’s residence, Mr Chiranjeevi said his party will positively consider Mrs Gandhi’s request to support Congress nominees in the RS polls.
He denied reports that the Congress offered him an RS seat if he agreed to merge his party with it. “There is no question of my party merging with the Congress,” he clarified. “It does not arise.”
However, he hinted that an alliance was on the cards. “In politics anything is possible and this is an era of coalitions,” he said. “The Congress is a secular party like ours. So there is nothing wrong... But let us see... We are like-minded parties.”
Mr Chiranjeevi refused to answer questions on whether the Congress had sought his support in the wake of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s “rebellion”. “I don’t know about all those issues,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
He said he had also asked Mrs Gandhi to give national status to the Polavaram and the Pranahita-Chevella irrigation projects, besides providing more assistance from the Centre for the victims of Cyclone Laila.
“She asked me to meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and discuss this,” he said. “I will meet him in the first week of June.”