TRS cosies up to Congress; merger, alliance options open

Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrashekhar Rao along with a delegation met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to thank him for getting the Telangana Bill passed in Parliament and also discussed issues related to the new state.

Emerging out of the meeting, TRS leader and MP Manda Jagannath said the "purpose of the visit was first to thank the Prime minister for the initiative".

He said that Rao and other leaders raised issues like shortage of power in Telangana, creation of an AIIMS like institution in the state, gas allocation and also sought the central government's help in maintaining the world class image of Hyderabad city.

"Any merger or alliance (between TRS and Congress) will take place in due time depending on the issues discussed and agreement reached," Jagannath said.

However, former MP and TRS leader B Vinod Kumar said that talks were on between Congress and his party on whether there should be a merger or an alliance and added that both options were being considered.

"If both of us come to a conclusion that it would be better for us to merge so that we can develop Telangana, so okay it is not a problem. But as the elections are heading shortly we thought we can have an alliance now, Congress and TRS and after elections we can think on those subjects," Vinod Kumar said.

He said that a sizeable section of cadre of the TRS felt that the party should enter an alliance and not merge. He added that the party wanted K Chandrashekhar Rao to be at the helm of affairs and lead the development of the new state.

The TRS chief had on Monday met Rahul Gandhi. On Sunday, he had held consultations with Congress President Sonia Gandhi following the passage of Telangana bill in Parliament.