RS polls: Praja Rajyam hints tie-up with Cong

The Praja Rajyam Party headed by film star-turned-politician K Chiranjeevi on Friday indicated that it might go in for a tie-up with Congress in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.

"The PRP shares similarities with Congress on issues like secularism and social justice. Hence we are ready to join hands with it...For now the alliance, if any, between the two would be for the Rajya Sabha elections from the state due on June 14," Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao, member of PRP political affairs committee, told mediapersons in Hyderabad.

PRP, which has 18 MLAs including two rebels in the 295-member Andhra Pradesh assembly, is keen on contesting the Rajya Sabha elections.

Unless the Congress supports it, the party cannot realise its dream of winning a seat as a minimum of 42 votes are required for a candidate to get elected to the Upper House.

Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi, who has got an invitation from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is leaving for New Delhi on Saturday morning to meet her.

According to PRP sources, the All India Congress Committee has invited Chiranjeevi to New Delhi for "talks" without specifying the agenda, but it is presumed that they will essentially revolve around the ensuing elections to Rajya Sabha from the state.

"The meeting between Sonia and Chiranjeevi has been fixed for 7:30 pm on Saturday after she returns from Kashmir...If the meeting doesn't materialise on Saturday, it will happen on Sunday morning," a senior PRP leader said.

The PRP's PAC, under the chairmanship of Chiranjeevi, met at his residence to deliberated at length the Congress' invitation for talks and course the party has to take in the event of an alliance.

"We know what to ask the Congress leadership but don't know what it will ask us," a PAC member of PRP said.

Since the Congress is also not in a comfortable position to win the fourth seat on its own, it will have to depend on PRP's backing.

Asked if the PRP would support the Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha in case the latter made a request, the PAC member said the party president would take the 'final decision depending on the situation.'

"The PRP feels that if the friendship with Congress is established for the Rajya Sabha elections, it could be firmed up for the elections to urban local bodies in the state, due in September this year. There is a lot of optimism in our party about the tie-up with the Congress," the PAC member remarked.