Hyderabad:
The jury is still out on how Jaganmohan Reddy's exit from the Congress will affect the party in Andhra Pradesh. But one man celebrating that exit is K. Chandrasekhara Rao or KCR, chief of the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS).
The TRS chief says Jagan quitting the Congress is good news for Telangana. For, he reckons, YSR's son will weaken the Congress in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema and so the party will be compelled to grant statehood to Telangana to get votes in this region. "Many MPs, MLAs are openly saying that they will follow Jagan. In that case, if the Congress wants to survive at least in Telangana, they must wake up and deliver Telangana immediately," KCR said.
While he makes his political calculations, KCR is also planning a show of strength with a huge public meeting in Warangal tomorrow. But two weeks before the Srikrishna committee submits its report on the demand for a separate Telangana state, the TRS chief is careful not to be seen inciting violence even as he raises the pitch on his demand to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and carve out a separate Telangana.
"As agitators, we will say certain things to maintain the pace of the movement, to keep the heat on. It doesn't mean virtual civil war. There may be a law and order problem, a disturbed situation. It is not that we will pick up a gun and fight," says KCR, whose hunger strike last year on the Telangana issue had led to days of unrest and violence in the state.
As the state prepares for the submission of the Telangana report, the TRS is trying to send out a message through its Warangal show of strength, not just to Delhi but also to other players who have started chanting the statehood-for-Telangana mantra in the last one year: That KCR's party is the sole voice of the people of Telangana.