Hyderabad: In an interesting political development, the Congress Legislature Party meeting held here on Tuesday, decided to cast only  first preference vote to Congress nominee Akula Lalitha and if need arises they would seek guidance from AICC to cast second preference  vote to TD nominee Vem Narendra Reddy in order to teach a lesson to the ruling TRS.

In the three hour long meeting of the CLP, there was a heated discussion on whether to help TD nominee to win by giving second preference vote as the ruling TRS party is bent on encouraging defection of MLAs from both Congress and TD.

When asked, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Shabbir Ali said “The CLP decided to cast only one vote to the party nominee. There was a suggestion from some members to give second preference vote to TD, but it was not agreed upon by the leaders. However, if there is a political need, we will consult the AICC and act accordingly but there is no decision to support TD nominee now”.

The Congress has 18 MLAs including Independent Dontu Madhava Reddy. If all of them vote for the party nominee there will be some value left as surplus which cannot be transferred to any candidate unless second preference vote is cast. In order to strengthen opposition unity in the state, a few members suggested that both Congress and TD should exchange their second preference vote so that both the candidates could win.

However some MLAs said in the meeting that Telugu Desam is known as anti-Congress and any sort of tie-up with TD will boomerang in the state. In case there is going to be some sort of understanding on vote sharing, there will be trouble in local body polls.

AICC Secretary R.C. Kuntia who was present as observer told MLAs that Congress cannot have any understanding with TD. However at the end of the meeting it was left to TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy and CLP leader K. Janareddy to take a call on the issue.