Hyderabad: The Congress party in Telangana, in the doghouse since its defeat in 2014, is finally getting its act together and has adopted an offensive posture to take on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the next year’s assembly elections.

State Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, bolstered by the success of his ongoing Bus Yatra, has come up with a new strategy to corner the ruling party.

The plan, apart from fielding strong and winnable candidates in the strongholds of the TRS including the constituencies of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, and his son K. Taraka Rama Rao, includes exploring the possibility of tying up with Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an unthinkable proposition for both the parties till the recent past.

Asked about the possibility, Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “There is no hard and fast rule that the Congress cannot forge an alliance with the TDP. We are not averse to joining hands with the TDP in the next elections.”

Though the Congress and TDP have always been bitter opponents and anti-Congressism was the raison d’etre of TDP since its formation in 1982, both the parties were in a desperate situation since the formation of Telangana state and looking for a desperate solution. While the Congress is in a fightback mode to reclaim its prime position, TDP is in a still bad shape reduced to only two members in the state assembly.

However, in terms of mass base, the Congress still has a vote share of nearly 20 per cent and the party realises that if it joins hands with TDP, it can give a tough challenge to the TRS. The Congress had polled 25 per cent of the votes against the TRS’ 35 per cent in 2014.

The Congress is specially eyeing the urban voters of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area which has as many as 24 assembly seats and where, traditionally, TDP has been very strong as the area has a sizeable population of the people from Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.

The Congress is planning to exploit the anger of Andhra-Seema people against the BJP over the denial of the special category status to Andhra Pradesh. “People of Andhra are very angry with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and his party over their failure to fulfil the promises made to Andhra Pradesh,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said, explaining the strategy for 2019. He said the Congress will field strong Seema-Andhra leaders as its candidates in the assembly constituencies in Hyderabad.

The party also plans to portray the TRS as a villain by claiming that it had a secret understanding with the BJP. The Congress also plans to target the strongholds of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) in the old city with the same allegation of a secret understanding with the TRS and BJP. “We will also field strong candidates in the constituencies of MIM,” the Congress state chief said. The MIM has seven members in the state assembly. Uttam Kumar Reddy said his strategy has already been approved by the party high command. “We are hopeful that the TDP will join hands with the Congress,” he said.

The Congress is extending hands of friendship towards the TDP at a time when the game plan of TRS supremo KCR appears to be undergoing a lot of change as he is weighing his options vis-a-vis the BJP. After spewing fire on Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for some time, KCR has suddenly cooled down keeping everybody guessing about his next move.

At one time, there was also a talk of the TRS joining hands with the TDP but of late, nothing is heard on this front.