Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao today scotched all speculation about the last-minute prospect of an alliance with the Congress. In a show of supreme confidence, the pink party supremo released the party’s first list of 69 candidates for the assembly elections. Reasserting that his party would go alone in the elections, he flayed the Congress leaders for raising false hopes of a Congress-TRS alliance in the last few days.

The TRS thus becomes the first major political player to announce its candidates in Telangana. The first list of the TRS retained all its sitting legislators for the poll fray. Also, it appeared to have focused on prominent TJAC functionaries who played an active role in the Telangana movement, besides rewarding a handful of deserters from the TDP.

Rao leads the pack of prominent party leaders figuring in the first list. The TRS chief will be contesting from Gajwel assembly constituency in Mahabubnagar district. The others are his son, K Taraka Rama Rao, seeking re-election from Sircilla of Karimnagar district, and his nephew Harish Rao, aiming at a third straight term from the Siddipet seat, his bastion for years in Medak district. Popular among the TDP deserters was film comedian-turned-politician Babu Mohan.

Rao promised to announce party’s other candidates for the 119 seat Telangana Assembly in the next few days. The TRS chief also used the occasion to take the wind out of the Congress sails over his chief ministerial ambition. The Congress leaders have been accusing KCR of backtracking on an alliance to become the CM. In a complete volte-face of his earlier stand, the mercurial leader said there is nothing wrong if he dreams to become the chief minister of the soon-to-be-divided state.

KCR also took the opportunity to unveil his party’s poll manifesto that was peppered with a slew of populist promises. Outlining his party’s utmost priority for the upliftment of the poor, he promised to make a Rs 1,000 crore budgetary allocation for the welfare of Muslims and other minorities. A 12 percent reservation for Muslims, pay-rise for state government on par with central government employees, modern hospitals at mandal headquarters and NIMS-like hospitals in district headquarters are some of the enticements mentioned in the TRS manifesto.