Options trading opens on May 16

NEW DELHI: Options trading has begun. TRS has entered the political market place with its offer of support to the party that backs the formation of a separate Telangana.

This is the first clear signal of parties expressing their willingness to leave their current nesting grounds for another that has the wherewithal to gather the required numbers to grab power.

TRS, which fought the just-concluded election in Andhra Pradesh in alliance with TDP and Left parties, said it was open for a deal with BJP as well as Congress.

���We will go with the party that will carve out a separate state of Telangana. TDP will get a simple majority in Andhra Pradesh. The alliance with TDP was limited to the assembly election,��� TRS chief K S Chandrasekhara Rao said.

The statement comes in the backdrop of attempts by all major players to effect a realignment of forces. Congress allies, who have formed a front within the front, on Sunday reiterated that the leadership and the shape of the alliance can be decided only after May 16.

���The UPA allies are now scattered. The leadership, too, cannot be decided now as everything will depend on the post-poll numbers,��� SP general secretary Amar Singh said in Kolkata.

This is a sequel to the statements from ���fourth front��� parties. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Lalu Prasad and Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, who have vowed to thwart the attempts of Congress to find a toe-hold in the Hindi heartland, have been co-ordinating their efforts with NCP leader Sharad Pawar.

The NCP leader has been quite critical of Congress��� attempts to ���undermine��� the role of regional players in the alliance.

The NCP leader is expected to play a role in bringing ���fourth front��� parties and anti-Congress forces to the ���secular side.��� This will gather pace when political parties have to take formal positions based on their respective regional calculations.

While major parties in Tamil Nadu will go with different fronts, SP and BSP cannot be part of the same combo. SP has already begun egging the Left to take a view on BSP. ���We can have a political deal with Left parties only if they keep Mayawati out of their calculations,��� Mr Amar Singh said.

On her part, Ms Mayawati is keeping her options open. But she is unlikely to throw her weight behind Congress as she would not like to expose her core votebank to any possible poaching at a later stage.

The Left has been stepping up its attack on Congress and their chief effort is aimed at denying the party the lead role in the secular coalition. Mr Prakash Karat has been maintaining that the third front parties will not be averse to taking outside support of Congress.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday repeated the Left���s line. ���The Left parties are against communal forces and so we had supported UPA last time. But Manmohan Singh betrayed us by signing the civil nuclear deal,��� Mr Bhattacharjee said.

This makes it clear that the party would like the terms of the engagement with Congress to be decided by it and not the latter.

As of now, Congress is resisting the attempts of ���secular��� parties to corner it by maintaining that Mr Manmohan Singh���s leadership was non-negotiable. But this position could become untenable if the Congress does not manage the required numbers to stand up to the pressure of allies.