Vijayawada: Stating that the Congress is not a sanyasis’ party but an open-mined political entity, APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy on Monday hinted that the party is open to coalition politics in the state.

Answering a question during his “Meet the Press” programme in Vijayawada, Mr Reddy said that the Congress is working to re-establish itself in residuary AP.

Though the APCC chief did not directly say that the party was looking at coalition partners, the signals were clear that the Congress is preparing the ground for coalition politics in AP, like in Tamil Nadu, economics professor and political analyst Dr L.S.N. Prasad observed. Dr Prasad opines that Mr Reddy’s words were a feeler to other political parties in the state.

The PCC Chief said that though the Congress wishes to grow on its own it is open to sharing of seats with the like-minded secular parties and Communists in 2019.

While evading a direct reply to a question on as to whether the party will go it alone, Mr Reddy said that party will rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

Taking a cue from the words of AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, the APCC chief reiterated that the party was strong enough to face any challenges in the days to come.

When asked if the 2019 general elections was the immediate challenge before the Congress, Mr Reddy said that the polls were not on the party’s agenda as of now.

Praising the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy as a committed Congress worker, he said that YSR waited till 2004 to become the Chief Minister and was patient despite not making it to the past thrice earlier.

“Unfortunately, Jagan Mohan Reddy has no such patience,” he observed, adding that the YSRC chief crossed the ‘lakshman rekha’ of the Congress and went on to draw his own lines.

When asked if the Congress was open to any alliance with the YSRC in 2019, the APCC chief skilfully dodged the question.