In the wake of swift changes in the Congress’ thinking on the Telangana statehood demand, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is maintaining a strategic silence. Consequently, there is a lull in its activity at Telangana Bhavan, the party’s headquarters, in the last one week.
Though party president K Chandrasekhara Rao held discussions with senior leaders and TJAC chairman M Kodandaram, he confined his activity to his residence and did not visit the party office on Friday. Sravan and some others were occasionally holding press briefings there.
After Digvijaya Singh’s remarks that creation of a separate state required an amendment to the Constitution, TRS secretary-general K Keshava Rao rushed to Telangana Bhavan and briefed the media about what the Constitutions says.
The TRS leadership is of the opinion that the Congress has hoodwinked the people for the last 50 years and will do the same now. “Telangana Congress leaders held a meeting and declared that a new state would be created by the Congress. The Congress Core Committee met on Friday. There are some murmuring in that party. But, strangely, KCR is maintaining a strategic silence and just watching the developments,” a senior TRS leader told Express.
“KCR cannot say now itself that the Congress will deliver T or ditch the people. Any statement by him will carry weight only after the Congress’ decision. He will not hurry into saying that the Congress will backtrack on Telangana. Rao will respond only after the latest political developments unfolding within the Congress reache a decisive shape,” another leader said.
“This is a seventh meeting of the core committee. All of us know what decisions they took in the past,” said TRS secretary general K Keshava Rao.
Rao and other senior leaders of the party think that the Congress will drag the issue further and ditch the people finally. “Telangana is not a product that will be delivered by the Congress and taken by the people. It can materialise only with people’s sacrifices,” another leader said.
“If the Congress fails to deliver on its promise, the TRS will ensure that all other parties lose their deposits in the general election and the TRS win 115 Assembly seats. Then T will be delivered automatically,” another leader analysed.
So, the lull in the TRS activity should be construed as a strategic silence on the part of the separatist party for another long-drawn battle. “The delaying tactics of the Congress will not dishearten T-people. They will be prepared for a long battle with renewed energy with an eye on the 2014 elections,” a worker of the party said.
The TRS thought of boycotting the panchayat elections but changed its mind at the last minute.