Somnath accepts Rao's resignation, TRS withdraws support to UPA

New Delhi, Sept 23 (UNI) The Telangana Rashtra Samiti today withdrew its support to the UPA even as Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee accepted the resignation of former Union Minister and party chief K Chandrashekhara Rao, who represented the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, this morning.

By sending its letter of withdrawal to Speaker, the TRS -- which has five MPs in the Lok Sabha -- dashed the hopes of the UPA to retain it within the alliance, although its ministers had quit in August.

In his letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam, Mr Rao said that the UPA had failed to keep up its promise of creation of Telangana state, made in its Common Minimum Programme, despite the proposal having ''overwhelming support from Members of Parliament and a clear consensus.'' However, the exit of the TRS will have no immediate impact on the stability of the UPA as the alliance enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Rao's resignation was accepted by Mr Chatterjee earlier in the day after Mr Rao personally presented himself to presss for his resignation. Although Mr Rao had sent his resignation to Mr Chatterjee on September 13, from Hyderabad, the Speaker waited till Mr Rao personally attested his resignation as per the established convention.

Flanked by rest of the TRS MPs, Mr Rao asserted that the outcome of the result in Karimnagar Lok Sabha byelection would be a referendum by the people of Telgnana and challenged Congress to face the people without its ''Telangana mask.'' Mr Rao was, however, not forthcoming if he himself would contest the bypoll or nominate somebody else. He said he was hoping that the Election Commission would be notifying the byelections for Karimnagar along with byelections to Vidisha and Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituencies.

The 26 TRS MLAs in Andhra Pradesh, who were part of the Congress-led coalition, have now been sitting on the Opposition benches for over one year in the state assembly.

Attacking the Congress for going back on the promise made by the UPA on creation of Telangana, Mr Rao claimed the ''arithmetic was very clear in the Lok Sabha with 400 MPs ready to back the Telangana Bill.'' ''When the BJP was undecided on the issue, the Congress put the blame on them. When the BJP leaders announced their support, the UPA leaders said that they could not believe in the words. After the BJP Executive passed a resolution supporting the creation of Telangana, they said they would have nothing to do with the BJP,'' he said.

Mr Rao noted that even within the UPA, parties like DMK and CPI-M, who had opposed the creation of Telangana had told the Congress that they were free to go ahead with the resolution without their support like in the case of revival of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

Asked if he would align with the BJP in the future fights, Mr Rao, evading a direct answer, said ultimately all the pro-Telangana forces will have to join hands to achieve their goal.

''As far as the TRS is concerned, it will emerge as an independent force. When I parted with UPA, I told AICC General Secretary and Andhra Pradesh-incharge Digvijay Singh that I will come back to Delhi as a mighty man. I shall prove this after Karimnagar byelection and the next General elections,'' he asserted.

Claiming that the people of Telangana did not want to be a part of Andhra Pradesh because of the fear of exploitation, of which they had a five-decade-long experience, he said that the people of the region cherished self-respect and self-rule and nobody could prevent them from making a separate Telengana a reality.

Mr Rao also alleged that most of the parties within the UPA were unhappy with the functioning of the coalition. ''What was the reason for NCP Chief Sharad Pawar to fire his salvo from Dehradun? What support did Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren got when he was facing troubles?'' he queried.

To a question that there had been no resolution from Andhra Pradesh Assembly, he retorted that the creation of Gujarat had been without a resolution from the Maharashtra Assembly and the Supreme Court had accepted that such a measure was not necessary.

Noting that there was no scientific criteria evolved for creation of states, he said Goa, with a population of 70 lakh, and UP, with 18 crore people, were both states.

''Is this not a dichotomy?'' he said.

UNI