Telangana Rashtra Samiti President K Chandrasekhar Rao has ruled out the possibility of his party merging with the Congress on Monday. After the merger of Telgu superstar Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress on Sunday, rumours were abuzz that TRS will do the same.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which has spearheaded the movement for a separate state in Andhra Pradesh, is furious over the Centre's apparent backtracking over the issue.In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, TRS general secretary Subhash Reddy states that the party is willing to give the government some time to resolve the issue, but will rest only after they 'get their state back'.
Normal life was paralysed across Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday as the 48-hour bandh, called by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and other parties to protest the Centre's decision to hold further consultations on the statehood issue, began with violence breaking out at some places. The shutdown call had an immediate impact as students and other Telangana supporters came on to the streets and resorted to stone pelting on buses and shops in Hyderabad.
In yet another indication of mounting trouble for the Telugu film industry due to the growing regional divide in the state, a group of pro-Telangana activists attacked the shooting of a film featuring young actor Manoj, son of actor and producer Mohan Babu.
As his fast unto death entered its eleventh day on Wednesday, the condition of Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrashekar Rao has turned critical. Tension was mounting in the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, where Rao has been kept under observation in the Intensive Care Unit.
The appeal was made by Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy after TRS members forced the House's adjournment twice in the morning demanding the immediate passing of a resolution in support of Telangana
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah will be visiting New Delhi on Wednesday amid mounting pressure on the Congress to resolve the Telangana issue.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, on a fast for the last six days demanding a separate Telangana state, was on Saturday shifted to the ICU of a Hyderabad hospital after his condition deteriorated, even as the party called a two-day bandh in the region from Monday.
Many parts of Telangana regions erupted into violence as the police foiled the attempt of Rao to go on a fast-unto-death by arresting him on Sunday.
Dr Sangam Prithviraj, who leads the students at the Osmania University in Hyderabad, says that they were foolish to trust TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao and that now all students in all the 10 districts of Telangana will take the movement forward themselves.
Naidu, whose 150-day-long Mee Kosam Yatra entered the West Godavari district on Sunday night spoke to Rao for 15 minutes, well informed and reliable sources in the TDP said. Since Chandrasekhara Rao left the TDP in 2001 and launched the movement for Telangana and formed his own political party, it was first time that the two leaders spoke directly.
Elections to four Lok Sabha seats -- Karimnagar, Hanamkonda, Warangal and Adilabad -- and 18 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh following resignation by Telangana Rashtra Samiti members would be held on May 29. The EC said bypolls to three other Lok Sabha seats -- Hamirpur (HP), Thane (Maharashtra) and Tura (Meghalaya) as also four assembly seats -- Indri, Gohana and Adampur in Haryana and Amritsar South (Amritsar) would take place on May 22.
In an interview to rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, K T Rama Rao speaks about the ongoing agitation and on possibility of shaking hands with the Congress once Telangana is formed.
It is now more or less certain that the film actress-turned-politician Vijayshanti will quit the Telangana Rashtra Samiti as the party president K Chandrasekhara Rao has not included her in the 23 member politburo.
The war of words between the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti intensified on Sunday with TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao alleging that TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had foiled the formation of a separate state of Telangana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Centre would soon form a committee which would adopt all possible ways for empowering Madigas (a SC community) with regard to their demand of categorisation of Scheduled Castes.
Supporters of the Telangana movement are celebrating the results of the by-polls held in Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti has swept the by-polls and pro-Telangana activists claim that the election result is an open message to the Shri Krishna Commission.TRS general secretary Subhash Reddy said, "I am elated.The Shri Krishna Commission doesn't need better proof of the people's sentiments about the issue. This result is an open letter to the commission."
As Andhra Pradesh heads for by-elections in 10 Assembly seats, a sort of mini- referendum, whether the people of Telangana region want a separate state or not- region's politics is all set for a major realignment of forces.
The ruling Telugu Desam party is trying to take advantage of the anxiety of Telangana Rashtra Samiti over the coming by elections to 12 assembly seats in Telangana region. While the TRS was hoping that all the MLAs who had resigned in support of Telangana state will be re-elected unanimously and no other party will enter the fray, Congress and Telugu Desam have queered the pitch by declaring their intentions to contest the by elections.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee went ahead with its 'vanta varpu' or cook-and-eat agitation on the roads in Hyderabad on Sunday to press for a separate Telangana state.
The Grand Alliance of four opposition parties -- Telugu Desam, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India Marxist -- who have decided to make the alleged corruption of the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress government the main issue in the coming assembly elections, on Friday demanded that the chief minister be prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act. A delegation of the Grand Alliance leaders met Governor N D Tiwari.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti will never merge with any other party and will continue as the 'sole voice' of Telangana people even if statehood is granted to the region, party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Tuesday. His remarks assume significance in the wake of comments by Telugu Desam Party leaders that Rao would merge TRS with the Congress in return for formation of a separate Telangana. He reiterated his decision to make a Dalit the chief minister.
"So far about 300 people, included students, committed suicide for the cause of a separate Telangana state. Government of India never considered this. The Centre has clearly succumbed to the pressure exerted by the Andhra-Rayalaseema lobby," he alleged, adding, "It is a total betrayal of the people of Telangana. The terms of reference are totally immoral."
Even as legislators of the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti hailing from Telangana region decided to go ahead with their resignations in support of a separate state on Friday, the Congress group from the region softened its stand and on Tuesday aborted its visit to New Delhi to pressurise the party high command.
Two crucial issues will be discussed at the all party meet convened by the Centre to discuss the Telangana crisis on January 5 -- the future status of Hyderabad and introducing a resolution on the creation of a separate state in the Andhra Pradesh assembly.The Centre has already prepared its replies to queries related to these two points, in case they are raised by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti or the Bharatiya Janata Party, during the meeting.
In a bid to find a way out of the Telangana imbroglio, the Centre on Wednesday convened a meeting in New Delhi on January 5 of 8 recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh for a discussion on the issue.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday said he is ready to hold talks with the Centre but will not accept any committee to look into the Telangana issue. "The Centre should immediately come forward and find a solution. We demand that it sticks to its earlier statement. We are not ready to accept any committees. Except wasting time, these committees serve no purpose," he said. "The patience of Telanagana people need not be tested unnecessarily," he said
Handed down by the Mahatma as a medium to peacefully protest for a cause, hunger strikes have, however, been used by many politicians for achieving individual and petty goals. Many leaders have been successful while some failed in getting their demands conceded, but fasting is still considered an effective weapon of protest in Indian polity.
The flames engulfing Andhra Pradesh today -- now threatening to scorch even distant Assam and Bengal -- were lit as far back as 1920.
TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, who ended his 11-day fast undertaken to press for Telangana state, was shifted out from ICU of the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad.
Sporadic incidents of violence and suicide by at least three activists marred the Telangana Bandh called by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Monday to protest against the arrest of its president, K Chandrasekhara Rao and police cane charge on students in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao was on Sunday detained near Karimnagar ahead of his proposed fast unto death for separate Telangana.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao said that he will go on a hunger strike from February if until then the bill to form a separate Telangana state is not introduced in the Parliament. Rao's decision came at the Joint Action Committee meeting held in Hyderabad on Thursday night, hours after the Srikrishna Commission was made public.
However, the BJP remained more or less elusive while refusing to give any commitment to the demand raised by the 'Gau Raksha Ekta Samiti'.
Reports said that contract killers have been hired to kill Gaddar, after a recent Maoist attack killed 38 policemen on the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border of June 29.
The crisis in the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, triggered by the resignation of party president K Chandrasekhara Rao after the defeat of the party in the recently held by elections, blew over on Wednesday with Rao withdrawing his resignation. Rao had sent his resignation to party general secretary Madhusudhanachary on Tuesday accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the by election. The TRS had lost two of its four Lok Sabha sets and seats.
The four TRS MPs -- Vinod Kumar, Ravindra Naik and T Madhusudan Reddy -- submitted their resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The TRS chief had announced on Sunday at a rally in New Delhi that MPs of his party will tender their resignation from the Lok Sabha, as the Congress with whom it fought elections on the issue, had ditched it after coming to power.
In a reflection of the serious trouble brewing in the ranks of Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the party's beleaguered president K Chandrasekhara Rao faced the wrath of the party cadre during a visit to Nalgonda district.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti President K Chandrasekhara Rao tells B Dasarath Reddy that statehood for Telangana is certain before or immediately after the 2009 general elections.
