KCR in Delhi to stoke Telangana hopes

TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao is camping in Delhi to make himself available for consultations with the Congress high command amidst rising hopes back home that a decision on the Telangana issue is in the offing.

Though Chandrasekhar Rao, an MP, had said he was going to Delhi to attend the Parliament session, sources in his party said there is a likelihood of the Congress high command declaring its mind on the Telangana issue by the end of this month, and the TRS chief thinks it might be useful to be on call at short notice.

However, a decision is not likely in the next 10 days as Congress president Sonia Gandhi is abroad for medical treatment and may not return until the middle of this month.

So KLCR will have to sit tight, conferring with Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad in the meantime.

According to sources, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has been telling visitors from Telangana that something is cooking on the separate state question. The decision could go either way, he is learnt to have told some Telangana leadershim.

Congress MPs from the region are not very optimistic about an early decision. According to them, Sonia Gandhi, after her return, might convene the AICC or there might also be a reconstitution of the cabinet.

As Assembly elections in Gujarat will be held towards the end of this year, her focus will be on evolving a political strategy to checkmate Narendra Modi. Telangana is not likely to be high on her priorties, Congress sources say.

The TRS chief’s detractors say his sojourn in Delhi is just a ploy to stoke hope in the hearts of Telangana separatists ahead of their Telangana March in Hyderabad on Sept.30 and also send a message to the delegates attending the 11th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-11) in Hyderabad from Oct.1 that the Congress had gone back on its promise.

The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) is keen on embarrassing the Congress with the Telangana March and its chairman M Kodandaram has made it clear on more than one occasion that the march will be the only way to bring pressure on the Centre.