Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and Union Minister for Labour K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday asserted that there was no crisis in his party. He even dubbed the reports of dissent in the party as the creation of the media.
Addressing a news conference Saturday evening, Chandrasekhar Rao said that some party legislators had raised some intra-party issues but it did not mean that they had raised a banner of revolt against his leadership or the party. There was also no truth in the reports that the disgruntled legislators were contemplating to join the Congress.
Chandrasekhar Rao said that the TRS was carrying on the struggle for separate Telangana state in a peaceful and sincere manner. However, certain forces were inimical to the demand for Telangana. They were trying to sow the seeds of discord in the TRS and the media was giving them support, he alleged and warned that the movement for separate state could take a violent turn as was the case with the Telangana agitation in 1969.
The TRS chief expressed the hope that the UPA sub-committee headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee would finalise its report on the issue of separate Telangana state soon after the Bihar elections were over. He was confident that Telangana state would become a reality soon.
Lashing out at a section of the media for joining hands with the anti-Telangana forces, he said they were "blowing small happenings out of proportion" and portraying as if a crisis was brewing in the party. He alleged that the media had given wide publicity to "so-called dissidence" in the party at least four times in the last one month.
"I am appealing to the media not to resort to sensationalism. I leave it to their wisdom. Telangana is an issue concerning crores of people and the media should desist from harping on dissent in the TRS at the best of anti-Telangana forces," he said.
Chandrasekhar Rao said that he was ready to talk to the dissenting legislators and sort out the issues raised by them. "We will discuss it in the party's state executive and the TRS Legislature Party. After all, they are our own legislators. We will settle down everything.
Nothing will happen (to the party). Everything is intact. Our party is working to achieve its goal of separate Telangana state."
TRS Legislature Party leader G Vijayarama Rao said the party would the party would decide on future course of action only after discussing the outbursts of four party legislators.
It may be recalled that four legislators from Warangal district had come out openly against the party leadership on Friday, voicing their resentment against the style of functioning of the party leadership.
The dissident legislators-Mandadi Satyanarayana Reddy (representing Hanamkonda constituency), D Srinivas Rao (Chennur), K Lakshma Reddy (Narsampet) and Miss Bandaru Sara Rani (Parkal) - and party secretaries Kola Janardhan and R Amarender Reddy, in a two-page joint statement, had accused the party leadership of resorting to political witch-hunting.
"It is unfortunate that the party leadership is adopting a vengeful attitude towards well-meaning party functionaries who questioned their unilateral decisions such as the reconstitution of the state executive and the expulsion of senior party leader S Santosh Reddy," they said.
In fact, after the Santosh Reddy episode, the party leadership lost all sense of restraint and reconstituted various party committees without consulting the senior leaders. The bond between the top leadership and the grassroots cadres was snapped.
Instead of listening to what the party legislators said and working for a consensus, the TRS leadership was portraying those who were critical of its functioning as 'traitors of the party and enemies of the cause of separate Telangana state. They recalled that the leadership had become intolerant ever since Santosh Reddy raised the banner of revolt. Even as senior TRS leader and Union Minister of State for Rural Development A Narendra was seeking to work out a compromise, some TRS leaders openly condemned Santosh Reddy.
The dissident MLAs, however, refuted reports that they were planning to join the Congress. They claimed that they were disappointed with the policies of the party leadership. "We will take a decision about our next course of action after consulting like-minded people. We are ready to join hands with others fighting for the cause of separate Telangana state," they said.
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