Saturday, March 15, 2014

Betrayal in Telangana

Telangana (also Karnataka and Kerala) with 17 Lok Sabha seats was the great southern hope for  the Congress in order to avoid annihilation at the polls.
Now with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) rejecting alliance with the Congress (both at the state and national level) there will be considerable heart-break.

Not only this is a disaster in the short term, but in the long term Congress will lose what was a few years ago its most loyal base (stayed with Mrs Gandhi even after the emergency horrors in 1977).

TRS is perhaps making a calculation that an alliance with the BJP may provide them with much needed Central bounty as the partition moves forward.

Not to worry, in the next election these fair weather friends will find a way to meet up again (in response to the demands of the people).  Another day in the wonder that is political India.

BTW this is a background map illustrating how the southern states (Karnataka shown with deep blue borders) were formed through reorganization of the British ruled and Native ruled states. The new Telangana state is in the North-East corner. The new Andhra state is shown in sky-blue.


....
In a severe setback to Congress in Telangana, TRS dashed its hopes of an alliance for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the region.
 
"There will not be any electoral alliance with Congress. Let's see from tomorrow if TRS MLAs will join the Congress or the reverse will happen," Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said addressing his party workers at the Telangana Bhavan here. KCR's remarks appear significant amidst indication that two former women ministers were all set to quit the Congress and join the TRS in a day or two.
 
Congress, which seeks credit for the role of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in the carving out of the new state out of Andhra Pradesh, has been seeking at least an alliance after TRS ruled out a merger with it. There are 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana whose assembly strength is 117.
 
Referring to remarks made by AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on TRS' refusal to merge with the Congress after the creation of Telangana., Rao attacked the Congress, asking, "They say KCR betrayed them but what was the betrayal."
 
Rao said they had proposed merger of TRS with Congress to secure statehood for the region and prevent suicides by hundreds of youth. "But now, people are against our merger and hence we are going by their wish," he added.
 
He recalled that many of those who committed suicide for a separate state had named the Congress for their act. "Now the Congress started a drama saying it will give tickets to kin of those victims in the coming elections," he said.

regards

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