All of them have stepped up their respective party activities and have even started talking of the impending election. ``We will get over 200 seats,'' asserts a confident Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee. ``The Congress will loot the State if it returns to power,'' retorts Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and boasts BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu, ``The BJP will go it alone and does not need allies to capture power in the State''.

The Congress has launched a week-long programme of `padayatras' at the Assembly constituency level to highlight the ``misdeeds'' of the Naidu Government. The Telugu Desam, on its part, is holding a series of meetings at various levels and undertaking `self-appraisal' exercises.

Telugu Desam leaders, however, do not openly admit that the party has begun an exercise in rejuvenating its cadres. ``Training programmes have been going on regularly. The activity is normal as we have more than a year to go,'' says TDP general secretary C Ramachandraiah.

``There has to be constant activity in the party and we have started the process with a series of meetings and the padayatra,'' explains Rajasekhar Reddy. At an impressive rally organised by the Congress in north coastal Andhra recently, Rajasekhar had declared that his party would ``bury'' Naidu.

Asked what he would do to first bury his differences with his own partymen, the APCC president asserted that everyone in the Congress was working together. When it was pointed out that some Congress leaders, particularly from the Telangana region, were openly critical of him, he dismissed the issue as trivial. ``I have a lot to do and cannot waste my time on such things. Some people have asked for a separate PCC for the Telangana region. What objection have we to it? It is for the party's central leadership to decide,'' he said.

To a question whether he was justified in making personal allegations against political leaders, Rajasekhar Reddy denied that the charges were personal in nature. ``If I talk about a sexual affair, it could be termed personal. But when I talk of corruption by a Chief Minister, it has nothing to do with personal affairs''.

The poll arrangements that are likely to work out in the State will be intriguing. With the major parties like the TDP, Congress and BJP not yet giving thought to tie-ups as of now, one would have to guess which way things would go.

The CPI and CPM, which fought the last election side-by-side with N T Rama Rao, have parted ways with the TDP following its decision to support the BJP government at the Centre. The Communist parties at the national level have started talking of backing a coalition led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But at the State level, the Communists have never joined hands with the Congress.

Together the `alliance' of the TDP, CPI and CPM had in 1994 bagged 261 of the 294 seats with the then ruling Congress being reduced to a mere 26. Not have only the Communists (34) abandoned the Telugu Desam but some legislators belonging to the TDP have joined the Congress via the NTR-TDP of Lakshmi Parvati.

Amidst the confusion as to which TDP legislator is officially in which party comes talk about at least a third of the ruling party legislators not getting renomination. All this has brought about a pre-election atmosphere already. ``Yes, we are countering criticism of our leader and have started talking of our achievements with the elections in view,'' admits a senior leader of the Telugu Desam.

According to him, party president Chandrababu Naidu has asked his partymen to counter criticim by the Congress as well as the BJP. ``The Congress seems to be going in a personal way but we will not stoop to that level. We will only highlight the achievements of our government,'' he said.