NEW DELHI: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday reiterated that his party would support the Congress in its endeavour to secure a Telangana State but took objection to reports that sought to portray him and the TRS as an appendage to the Congress.
Addressing a press conference here after conferring with Justice BN Srikrishna Committee member-secretary VK Duggal, the TRS supremo blew hot and cold at mediapersons for what he called distortion of his last night’s statement but finally said the same thing – he and his party would strengthen the hands of the Congress.
“When I said I would strengthen the hands of the Congress, what I meant was that my party would support the Congress when it moves a bill in Parliament for formation of a Telangana state. What would you expect me to do? Run away without supporting the bill?” Chandrasekhar Rao asked. He said he wanted the Telangana state to have the entire land that had been merged with the rest of Andhra Pradesh on Oct 31, 1956.
“I would not accept if the land is even one inch less,” he said.
“Telangana is my life time commitment. To realise that end, we adopt different strategies at different times,” Rao reasoned, exasperated over repeated queries from mediapersons on whether he was moving too close to the Congress.
“Why should we implement the agenda of the Congress? The Congress has its agenda and there are people in that party to implement it. Where is the need for us to do that?” he asked, annoyed over the queries. “On several occasions, several people in the media disseminated information inimical to the interests of the TRS. But I have survived all these machinations,” he said.
The TRS supremo said that the TRS action plan after December 31 would be to allow time till say January 25 for the Centre to study the report and take a decision in favour of Telangana.
The Congress had already promised Telangana.
“What remains now is that the Congress should keep the promise.
We want the party to introduce a bill in Parliament in the budget session,” he said.
