Cong, TRS weigh political options

Hyderabad, Sep 13 (UNI) Hectic parleys within the ruling Congress and the TRS camps were on in the wake of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) President K Chandrasekhara Rao, picking up Sports Minister M Satyanarayana Rao's gauntlet and announcing his resignation and the latter following suit.

Political heat picked up as Chief Minister Y S Rajasekara Reddy to whom Mr Satyanarayana Rao had submitted his resignation with preconditions, was closeted with senior party colleagues and held telephonic talks with State party President K Keshava Rao, MP, over the swift developments.

''Faxing the resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and sending the original through speed post, we are waiting for the Speaker's decision. If the Speaker wants, our leader Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao is ready to meet him in person and explain to him about his decision,'' senior TRS leader Vinod, MP told UNI.

In a bid to mollify the estranged ally, the High Command of the Congress, heading the United Progressive Alliance Government (UPA) at the Centre, has appealed to the TRS chief to reconsider his decision to resign from the Lok Sabha promising to discuss with the TRS its grievances and resolve issues.

Mr Chandrasekara Rao, who had resigned from the Manmohan Singh Government along with his deputy A Narendra last month, still continued to maintain the party's links with the UPA.

Mr Rao, who had resigned from the Cabinet after failing to get a firm commitment from the UPA government on carving Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh, was yet to take a formal decision on withdrawing support to the Congress-led Government at the Centre, hoping against hope that Congress Supremo Sonia Gandhi would break her 'silence on the issue.

The war of words intensified between the two former allies, after the TRS chief at its 'Samara Shankaravam' rally at Siddipet challenged all Congress MPs and MLAs to put in their papers and seek a fresh mandate and maintained that Mr Satyanarayana Rao, who had lost his deposit during the previous poll, won in 2004 only because of TRS support.

Mr Satyanarayana Rao as also State Information Minister Md Ali Shabeer accepted the challenge and posed counter-challenges which were readily accepted by Mr Chandrasekara Rao.

UNI SM LS HT1317