The Telugu Desam Party, the Congress and the Communist Party of India have formed an alliance in Telangana, NDTV reported on Tuesday.

The leaders of the parties met Governor ESL Narasimhan and sought President’s rule in the state till the elections are held. “Fair and free elections not possible if KCR continues as the chief minister,” the leaders were quoted as saying. “We will approach the Supreme Court against Telangana being forced into early elections”.

On September 6, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also known as KCR, dissolved the Assembly to pave the way for early elections in the state. The Assembly’s term was to come to an end in June 2019 and elections to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were due to be held along with the general elections. Rao and his council of ministers are currently continuing as the caretaker government till the elections.

The Congress is trying to unite the Communist Party of India, the Telangana Jana Samithi and the Telugu Desam Party to form a broad alliance, the Congress in-charge in Telangana, RC Khuntia, told PTI. He reportedly cited the example of Karnataka to indicate that the Congress may let a regional party take the chief minister’s position, in line with its efforts across the country to unite the Opposition.

“This is only the preliminary stage. We have not discussed seat sharing,” Khuntia said. “But we are formulating a broad-based alliance, including the TDP also, on the basis of the Common Minimum Programme.” The Congress’ aim was to defeat “communal forces”, he added.

Rao has already announced a list of 105 Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidates for the elections. There are 119 seats in the Assembly. Rao had said his party would contest the elections alone, but added that it was friends with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which released its first list of candidates for the Telangana Assembly elections earlier on Tuesday.

The Congress had ruled out the possibility of an alliance with Owaisi’s party.

The final voter list for the Assembly elections in Telangana will be published by October 8, the Election Commission of India announced on Sunday. The revision of electoral roll had been suspended after the early dissolution of the state Assembly last week.

Telangana can go to the polls with Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the Election Commission has said. The Election Commission has a sufficient number of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails to hold the elections then, reported NDTV.