TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao is said to be against merging his party with the Congress even if the Centre decides to accord statehood to Telangana, which is the sole demand of the separatist party.
Terming the recent feelers by the AICC leadership that it is leaning towards forming a Telangana state as a political game plan only to hoodwink the people of the region in the ensuing polls, Rao is understood to have told his party leaders that he did not believe that the Congress would really bifurcate Andhra Pradesh as demanded by the pink party.
KCR was addressing a meeting of heads of district units of the party and incharges of various Assembly constituencies at Telangana Bhavan here on Wednesday night. Party secretary general K Kesava Rao and politburo member Kadiam Srihari were also present.
According to sources, while addressing the meet KCR said he would not merge his party with the Congress as the ruling party had not come forward to deliver a T-state when he had expressed his willingness for merger earlier.
But now the same AICC leadership was putting out feelers that it was going to accord statehood to Telangana, but this was only to contain the growing clout of the TRS in the region, he said.
“I don’t believe Congress party will really form Telangana state. Even if it accords statehood to our region, the entire credit goes to our party only,” KCR was quoted as saying.
Even after formation of a T-state, KCR is believed to have said, the TRS would still play a key role in the separate state.
“After formation of Telangana state, our responsibility will be doubled. We will have to launch another movement for the reconstruction as well as overall development of the new state. So, TRS will exist even after the formation of T-state to carry out this crucial task,” KCR was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, emerging from the meeting, Kadiam Srihari said they would trust the ongoing feelers put out by the AICC leadership on T-issue only when Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi makes a statement in favour of T-state.
“Only when Congress party really forms a T-state, we will think about merging our party with the Congress,” he said.