Andhra Pradesh

TRS to vote against UPA

HYDERABAD: Vowing to work for the defeat of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government when it takes the confidence vote in Parliament next week, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has simultaneously chalked out an offensive against the Congress prior to that.

The party announced a five-day programme to ‘expose’ the Congress for betraying the people of Telangana after promising them a separate State.

The programme will culminate in a bandh in the region on July 19, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao told a press conference here on Sunday.

He said the TRS cadre would organise prayers in temples, churches and mosques on July 15, ‘rasta roko’ in Assembly constituencies on July 16, demonstrations before the houses of Congress MPs in the region on July 17 and boycott of colleges on July 18. The programme was aimed at making the Congress MPs mount pressure on their party high command to concede separate Telangana before the confidence vote was taken.

The TRS would go ahead with the bandh on July 19 if there was no response from Congress leadership.

Mr. Rao maintained that there was no change in the stand of TRS to vote against the Congress-led UPA government.

The party would reconsider its decision only if the Union Cabinet passed a resolution granting statehood to Telangana.

He also said the TRS would “undoubtedly” work for the defeat of the government. An independent MP from Manipur offered to be with him on Sunday. He was getting similar phone calls from a lot of other leaders. Explaining why the TRS decided to target Congress MPs from Telangana in the run-up to the trust vote, Mr. Rao said the people of the region had a moral right to question the silence of the parliamentarians on the statehood issue when the matters came to a head.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu