Telangana to see multi-cornered fight

Hyderabad: The decision of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti not to merge with the Congress party has evoked a strong reaction from Telangana Congress leaders. After a meeting at the residence of senior Congress leader K. Jana Reddy, Telangana Congress leaders charged the TRS President K. Chandrashekhar Rao with lying and being an opportunist.

After a five-hour meeting of the party politburo, legislature party and other committees of the party, TRS Presisdent Chandrashekhar Rao had announced last night that the party will not merge as it wants to keep its separate identity.

What shocked the Congress party was the refusal of KCR even to offer an alliance with the Congress party. He only said that if Congress was interested it can approach his party for alliance and will have to talk to a five-member committee headed by former Congress veteran K. Keshav Rao, presently secretary general of TRS.

“KCR has never said a truth in his life”, said former minister and Congress legislator Mohammed Ali Shabbir. He said that Congress had called for the merger of TRS to bring all the pro Telangana forces on one united platform. “But KCR has gone back on his word”, he added.

“While MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi moved an amendment to Telangana bill in Lok Sabha, KCR did not open his mouth”, he added.

Another former minister from the region D. Sridhar Babu said that the credit for the formation of Telangana state goes to Congress party. “KCR had no role in the formation of the state”, he said.

KCR on the other hand said that he was grateful to the Congress for the formation of Telangana state but there were other ways of expressing the gratitude. “We will support the Congress if it is in a position to form the government after the elections”, he told the media.

KCR admitted that he had offered to merge TRS with Congress when the union minister Vayalar Ravi had called him to Delhi on the condition that Congress gives Telangana state without any rider. “But Congress remain unmoved”. He also claimed to have clarified then that as Congress had not given any response to his offer, it had expired after he returned from Delhi.

He also indicated about the future role TRS would like to play at the centre. “As the next government in Delhi will be a coalition government, it is a must for the TRS to win the maximum number of Parliament seats for the maximum benefits of Telangana”. Claiming that the TRS will win 16 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, he said that the TRS will support whichever coalition comes to power at the centre.

It was largely believed that the TRS did not want to merge with Congress to keep the option of supporting the BJP after elections open.

He said that the TRS would be the voice of the people of Telangana by keeping its separate identity alive. “The decision not to merge the party was hundred per cent unanimous”, KCR declared.

By putting all the speculations of merger of TRS to the rest, KCR has ensured that the next elections in the region will witness a multi cornered contest in almost all the 17 Lok Sabha and 119 Assembly constituencies involving Congress, TRS, BJP and Telugu Desam.

Despite playing a spoilsport for Telangana, N. Chandrababu Naidu was keen to keep his party alive in Telangana region as he has a significant vote bank in the region in the form of settlers from Seemandhra region. He announced that he will form a separate Telangana state committee of his party to run its affairs.

Interestingly YSR Congress party of Jaganmohan Reddy was also eyeing the same settler vote bank by claiming to be champion of Seemandhra cause.

Another fallout of TRS’ refusal to play the ball with Congress could be further delay in announcing the date of formation of Telangana state. While the President Pranab Mukherji had given his assent to the Telangana bill making it an act, the bifurcation process was still on and “Appointed Day” was yet to be announced.