Hurt KCR to return home with vengeance

HYDERABAD: TRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao is understood to have decided to end the camaraderie with the Congress after the 'great let down' by the ruling party which made the Telangana leader cut a sorry figure before the people of his region.

Now that the writing on the wall is clear, the TRS chief has decided to return to Hyderabad and consult his colleagues on taking the movement forward after the Telangana March, held here on September 30, became a major draw.

Expecting a decision in favour of the Telangana state, KCR had left for Delhi early last month and the Congress too gave an impression that something serious was cooking on the T front.

KCR, who wanted to be around for consultations with the Congress, stayed put in Delhi and on his own he met several leaders of the party and discussed the stage to which the T movement has arrived. But just a few days before the Telangana March, the Congress high command made it clear that there would be no Telangana.

This had even led to his detractors ridicule him on what he had achieved by staying in Delhi. Now, according to sources, KCR wants to do a Mamata Banerjee and sever links with the Congress.

Though the TRS is not part of UPA, it has been on friendly terms with the Congress since the beginning of UPA-2 government hoping that the Congress would deliver a Telangana state anytime soon.

The TRS chief, when in Delhi, met AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vayalar Ravi, Oscar Fernandez and several other Congress big-shots.

He urged them to take a quick decision on the creation of a Telangana state to which Delhi leaders asked him to have some more patience due to ongoing consultations with both the regions of the state.

TRS sources said that KCR wants to set a fresh deadline to the Centre to take a decision on T issue and if the government fails to meet the deadline, he would resume the agitation after Sankranti.

The TRS would prepare an action plan keeping 2014 general elections in mind which would be to build a new political alternative to the Congress in the Telangana region.

In the coming two months, the TRS might confine itself to only token protests and strengthen its organisation network.

Meanwhile, the TRS chief would keep his colleagues targetting Congress ministers from Telangana region in order to edge them out of the political space in the region.

The TRS would as well take a tough stand against the TDP. A leader close to the TRS chief said the TRS would come up with a programme much larger than the Telangana March, organised by the TJAC on Sept 30.