New Delhi: In a bid to defeat the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have decided to join hands in Telangana, which is set for early polls after the assembly was dissolved last week. The Communist Party of India (CPI) is also part of the ‘maha kootami‘ (grand alliance), the party leaders announced on Tuesday.The Telangana heads of the three parties met in Hyderabad on Tuesday for the first round of talks and announced the decision afterwards. Telangana PCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told Hindustam Times, “We have decided in principle to form into a grand alliance… we are working out the modalities for the same. We are also trying to rope in other like-minded parties like Telangana Jana Samithi and CPI(M) into the alliance.”This is the first time that TDP, which was formed in 1982 by filmstar N.T. Rama Rao to fight the Congress’s monopoly in then united Andhra Pradesh, has formed an alliance with the grand old party. Discussions are underway to decide the seat-sharing.According to reports, Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu had advised the party’s Telangana leaders to align with the Congress to ensure that anti-establishment vote does not get split.After the 2014 state elections, the TDP and Congress together had 36 seats in the 119-member assembly. Poaching by the ruling party saw their numbers depleted to just 16, with TDP getting hit the worst. However, both parties claim that their grassroots presence is still strong, which coupled with the anti-incumbency vote, would aid their common cause.According to the Hindustan Times, the Congress wants to contest at least 90 seats and would aim to cross the half-way mark of 60. TDP is looking to contest around 30 seats, meaning seat-sharing talks might not prove tricky.BJP and TRS criticised the alliance as opportunistic. TRS leaders have exuded confidence that the party will be re-elected, irrespective of any alliances that opposition parties may forge.Election commission officials hold talksKicking off the poll process for the Telangana assembly, a team from the Election Commission held formal consultations with representatives of various political parties here Tuesday. A team led by deputy election commissioner Umesh Sinha also held discussions with Telangana Chief Electoral officer Rajat Kumar. On Wednesday, consultations would be held with state government officials to assess poll preparedness.The BJP, in a memorandum submitted to the EC, said that as per the election commission’s revised schedule, draft voters lists of all 119 assembly segments in the state needed to be made available to all political parties by September 10. However, the same had not been given to the party.Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy told reporters the party informed the EC that it was not possible to conduct elections within a short span of time. He also said chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been claiming that he had consulted the constitutional body on elections, which is against the rules.Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy from the TDP said his party sought an investigation into missing names in the voters list.TRS MP B. Vinod Kumar requested the EC to conduct elections as early as possible.The MIM requested the EC to conduct polls in a single go.The CPI(M) informed the EC that some pages of the website for registration of voters were not opening properly. The CPI alleged that Rao dissolved the Assembly prematurely without any valid reason, putting a burden of “hundreds of crores of rupees” on the exchequer for conducting elections.(With PTI inputs)