TRS shocks Congress, rules out merger

Dashing the hopes of the Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti has ruled out any merger with the national party and even refused to commit to an electoral alliance, ending days of speculation about the prospects of the two parties coming together.

The TRS also appointed a committee of senior leaders, headed by K Keshav Rao, to take a call on an alliance if any party approaches it, including Congress, TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters in Hyderabad late Monday after a marathon general body meeting of the party which unanimously decided against merger with Congress.

"TRS has unanimously decided not to merge with Congress. We have appointed a committee to look into the issue of alliance, if anyone approaches us," he said, adding TRS MPs could support Congress after Lok Sabha elections.

Lashing out at Congress, he alleged not even a single major demand of TRS was considered.

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"We were not taken on board," he said.

The TRS had approached the Prime Minister and the Group of Ministers tasked with roadmap for the formation of Telangana with a charter of demands but in vain.

He criticised Congress for coming out with an ordinance handing over certain villages facing submergence due to Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project, to Seemandhra, and making Hyderabad a joint capital as well as allocating Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in Delhi to the residual state.

"AP Bhavan is our hereditary property and Hyderabad has been made joint capital for ten years. The distribution of employees is also not good for Telangana. The Governor has been made a super-cabinet with law and order being entrusted to him," Rao said.

He said his offer to merge TRS with Congress came with a rider that it should be unconditional but now a number of conditions have been imposed.

Telangana should have a strong regional party with a strength of 15 MPs (out of 17 in Telangana) and 100 MLAs (out of 119) to bargain with the Centre to get mega development projects, he said, indicating his party would keep its options open in a post-poll scenario. 

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He denied it was political opportunism on his part regarding the refusal to merge with Congress. With Telangana seeing the light of the day, TRS is not just a political movement any longer but is in fact a pure political party and behaves so, he said.

Asked if he considers BJP to be a potential ally, he said the appointed committee would take a call on the matter.

Rao hit out at Union Minister Jairam Ramesh for reportedly comparing TRS with Aam Aadmi Party, which the latter said was good in agitation but proved to be a disaster in administration. He also claimed some Congress leaders misguided Sonia Gandhi on the Telangana issue.

Asked how many seats TRS would stake claim to in an alliance, he merely said "TRS should come to power," adding his party would win a substantial number of seats as projected by some pre-poll surveys.

He sharply criticised Congress for admitting TRS MLA G Aravind Reddy and expelled TRS MP Vijayashanti to its fold even as it tried to join forces with TRS. 

With Agency Inputs