Is Telengana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao sulking? He has retired to his farmhouse in Medak district after returning from Delhi last week. Whenever there is a lull on T front, he has a compulsive urge to chill out at his farm house and grow vegetables and fruits.
Earlier, when KCR left for Delhi on September 5, he was positive that the centre would announce Telangana before September 30, the day Telangana March was scheduled by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC). But nothing happened even though he held protracted talks with leaders of the Congress including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vayalar Ravi and Oscar Fernandes.
On September 30, there was an overwhelming response to the call for Telangana March. Now Telangana activists, particularly those of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, believe there is no need for any more such massive shows of strength. “There is no need for another Telangana March. We are hopeful of a decision from the Congress in favour of separate state after the Cabinet reshuffle which may take place in the next one week or 10 days. The Congress would have to think of its survival too and if it antagonises the people of Telangana it runs the risk of losing MPs from this region in the next elections,” TRS former MP and politburo member B Vinod said.
After Chandrasekhar Rao returned to Hyderabad, except saying that he had met and discussed the Telangana issue with more number of Congress leaders than the media got to know about and that consultations would continue, he did not add anything further. When MLAs and other Telangana leaders called on him at his farmhouse, he reportedly told them to wait for some more time for the good news to come.
In the run up to the Telangana March, relations were strained between him and TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram. Now efforts are on for a rapprochement between the two leaders. “There is no need for TRS to weaken TJAC since it was TRS which was instrumental in formation of TJAC,” KCR’s son K T Rama Rao said, on the simmering differences between the two leaders.
Chandrasekhar Rao is understood to have been discussing with T-leaders that thanks to his efforts in Delhi, there is now a change in perception of the Telangana demand. “Earlier, the movement was considered by the Congress biggies a mere agitation. But now they know that it is a serious issue since the demand is coming from the bottom of the heart of every one in Telangana. He keeps telling the party workers that there was no way the Congress could escape from dividing the state,” one TRS leader said.
Chandrasekhar Rao is planning to wait till November and then take a call. According to sources, if silence reins, the next weapon to hit the Congress would be—wiping out the party in the electoral battle in 2014. “As the signals that are emanating from Delhi are not very encouraging, the TRS is also taking a hard-look at the electoral front to teach the Congress a lesson that it would not forget,” one worker of the party said but hoped that the Congress would announce Telangana at least before the next general elections.