Congress starts playing mind game with TRS

NEW DELHI: The Congress continued to put 'moral pressure' on the TRS for a merger even as the latter is playing hardball amid continuing deliberations its chief K Chandrasekhara Rao is having with his rank and file.

Various theories are being floated on what is cooking between the two sides: one version is that while KCR himself is not against merger, some within his family and a section of the party leaders, particularly those who still have a long political career ahead, are opposing the move; the other is that the confusion being spread is part of an understanding between the two parties to weaken the TDP further in Telangana.

As TRS continued to deny even having initiated talks with the Congress, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh kept parroting his line. He said they still believe KCR will keep his word. 'He said he would merge the party with the Congress if Telangana is given. We will all become one. We trust KCR,' he remarked.

Initially, both the Congress and the TRS felt an alliance would be a better option vis-a-vis merger as the latter could possibly lead to the emergence of an alternative in the form of the BJP or a BJP-TDP combination.

But the thinking in the Congress appears to have changed for two reasons: One, serious difficulties might arise in seat-sharing and two, depending on how the wind blows post-election, it could provide leeway to the TRS to desert the Congress.

On the one hand, the Congress is still playing soft towards the TRS but on the other it has initiated mind games unleashing the separatist party leaders themselves against KCR.

Medak MP Vijayashanti, who formally joined the Congress in the presence of Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, said, 'A leader is one who keeps his word.' The underlying message is clear. TRS MLA from Adilabad, Aravind Reddy, too said more or less the same.

The Congress simultaneously started the process of wooing Telangana JACs. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, along with AICC SC cell chairman Koppula Raju, met a delegation of TJAC in Hyderabad.

The Congress had earlier made an open offer to TJAC representatives that it would consider some of them for party tickets in the ensuing polls and the same was said to have been reiterated by Ramesh and Raju to the TJAC representatives. The TJAC is headed by OU professor M Kodandaram while Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, a Dalit, is its co-chairman.

At a press conference at the Gandhi Bhavan, Ramesh did not make direct comments on merger/alliance but left none in doubt when he said, 'Some parties and leaders are good at fighting but prove to be bad administrators.

Take for instance, Arvind Kejriwal. He was a good fighter but proved to be a disaster as CM,' said Jairam, with a rider that he wasn't hinting at anyone.