Congress welcomes Vijayashanti, TRS sees red

Hyderabad: Expelled Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP Vijayashanti has joined the Congress. So has another legislator from the party, Arvind Reddy. Both had a bitter parting with TRS chief K Chadrasekhara Rao, or KCR as he is popularly called, and the party at different points in time.

Ms Vijayashanti even met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said soon after, "Happy to announce that Vijayshanti ji who fought so hard for Telangana has decided to join Congress."

TRS leaders say the party has taken a very serious view of the Congress welcoming into its fold the expelled duo.

"What signals are they trying to send? That they will dictate the terms and bulldoze us into a merger or pre-poll alliance? What arrogance!" said a senior TRS leader.

Political observers would say the TRS has got the exit opportunity it was looking for. Already, party leaders had told NDTV that they were under no obligation to either merge the TRS with the Congress or have a pre-poll alliance. Clearly, they want to keep their political options open. (Read)

"We are grateful to the Congress and that is why we went and met Mrs Sonia Gandhi. But then this would not have been possible without the BJP's support either. So, we will take a decision based on the circumstances," Harish Rao, TRS leader and nephew of KCR told NDTV.

Another contentious point has been as to when and where assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh - which are due along with the Lok Sabha polls - will be held. The TRS says it wants polls to be held in the new state of Telangana and not in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

"It can be done as was done with other states in the past. The appointed day was given within a week after the Bill was passed. So if Congress desires, they can make it happen before the election schedule," KT Rama Rao, TRS leader and son of KCR, told NDTV.

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, who played a key role in drafting the Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Bill which led to the creation of Telangana, though says it would take at least three months after the Presidential assent for notification for actual division or what is called the appointed day.

"Rushing into it would be a recipe for disaster. We should not bring electoral considerations into this. The only touchstone should be preparatory work like division of personnel, assets and responsibilities," Mr Ramesh told NDTV.

Even a week after the resignation of Kiran Kumar Reddy as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the Centre is yet to take a call on whether the state should get an interim chief minister or should go under President's Rule. Administration at the highest level is at a standstill even as political calculations are likely to determine the way forward.