Date:31/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/31/stories/2008033160061200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

TRS president rules out alliance with Congress

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao ruled out any alliance with the Congress in future and said that, on the contrary, that his party would function with the goal to decimate the Congress.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating the ‘Telangana Atma Gaurava Ratham,’ a remodelled bus for his district tours, at the Telangana Bhavan on Sunday, he condemned the statement of the new Pradesh Congress Committee president D. Srinivas that the Congress would renew its alliance with its pre-2004 friendly parties, including the TRS.

Faults Srinivas

He criticised Mr. Srinivas for lacking minimum knowledge of the relations between the two parties.

He faulted the stand of the APCC chief that the Congress did not express willingness to concede separate Telangana in the 2004 elections.

“He should reflect on the situation in 2004 and tell the truth to people,” Mr. Rao said. The people of Telangana were waiting to take revenge on the Congress for all the injustices it had heaped on them.

The Congress leaders apparently made such statements as they were nervous about facing the TRS in the coming by-elections. The polls would be a platform to decide the fate of separate Telangana, he said.

Earlier, Mr. Rao performed ‘puja’ to the Eicher bus acquired by the TRS for his public tours.