Date:15/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/15/stories/2006091523230100.htm

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TRS is still part of UPA, says Digvijay Singh

Special Correspondent

Party to inform President of quitting alliance: Narendra

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday maintained that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was still part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and that the State Congress chief had already appealed to TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao to withdraw his resignation from the Lok Sabha.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, in charge of party affairs in the State, said that Mr. Rao should continue in the UPA and press for his case of separate Telangana instead of opting to go out of the coalition.

Afterall, people elect you for five years. If he remains in the UPA he can raise his demand (for separate Telangana) more forcefully rather than staying away. The UPA committee on Telangana has not been disbanded. By staying in the UPA, he can argue for the case mush stronger,'' Mr. Digvijay Singh told correspondents here.

The AICC general secretary said it was Mr. Rao who had walked out of the UPA and was welcome to come back. Mr. Digvijay Singh re-asserted that in case the TRS pulls out of the coalition, the Congress would field a candidate as and when a vacancy occurred in Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Meanwhile, party sources said that the Congress central leadership had got in touch with the TRS chief through intermediaries in an effort to dissuade him from pressing for the acceptance of his resignation from the Lok Sabha.

Separate seats

Nizamaabad Staff Reporter writes: Meanwhile, former Union Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi senior leader A. Narendra said that his party would write a letter to the President informing him that they had come out the United Progressive Alliance.

Addressing a press conference at Kamareddy, Mr. Narendra said he would also request Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to allot separate seats for TRS members.

Replying to a question, he said the TRS severed ties with the Congress-led UPA the day they came out of the Government at the Centre.

However, this was not informed either to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his party felt "no need of it".

Throwing a challenge to the Pradesh Congress Committee chief K. Kesava Rao, he said if he had guts he should resign his Rajya Sabha membership and PCC post to protect the image of the Congress.

Referring to the recent political turmoil with the resignation of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Ministers-- M. Satyanarayana Rao and Shabbir Ali-- he blamed the PCC chief for it.