With the Presidential Rule in AP confirmation and the Parliament approved T Bill pending at the President’s Desk , the political situation in Andhra Pradesh is witnessing a calm before the storm! Politicians are carefully weighing their pros and cons before changing loyalties. The TRS party has gone into a silent mode about their merger with the Congress Party and the Congress party time and again issues feeble statements that the merger is on and only the issue of the seat sharing needs to be discussed. If the electoral alliance is not carried out it will be a major electoral loss in the T elections for the Congress. Meanwhile the TRS leaders are playing hard to get and are in no mood for an alliance as they stand a chance of being a strong regional party based on the T sentiment. There is no official statement from their side as yet.

Sidelined and disgruntled, Vijayasanthi has joined the Congress, but whether she is going to be strong contender in the polls and bring any luck to the Congress depends on whom the people are going to vote for. Congress is also looking at a possibility of Rahul Gandhi shifting his constituency from Amethi to Medak which is another strong reason for pushing the T bill. It is a known fact that Indira Gandhi contested both from Rai Barelly and Medak and won both but vacated her seat in Rai Barelly in favour of Arun Nehru and represented Medak constituency from 1980 till 1984, before she was assassinated. This is yet to be clarified by the Congress Party though it was in talks for some time.

The Prajarajyam Party merger with Congress episode seems to be deterring the TRS from entering into an alliance with the Congress, as it was quite evident that the party lost everything and the leaders were left in the lurch after the merger. Something that the TRS can’t afford to risk and lose with the people’s sentiment and support at stake. The merger could also be a problem for the Congress as it would affect their chances in the Seemaandhra elections with people there against Congress for allowing the bifurcation of the State- so it’s a Catch- 22 situation for the Congress .