Date:26/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/26/stories/2008022654970600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

By-polls will be a referendum: TRS chief

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrashekhar Rao has said that the by-elections that would be necessitated by the resignation of the party MPs and MLAs in a week’s time would be a referendum on the demand for separate Telangana.

Speaking to The Hindu from New Delhi after TRS MPs boycotted the President’s address to the joint session of Parliament on Monday, Mr. Rao said polls would have to be conducted in 40 out of 107 Assembly constituencies in Telangana following the resignation of the four MPs and 16 MLAs. They would be a mini-general polls guiding the future of separate Telangana.