KCR leaves after meeting Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi on Sunday
K Chandrasekhara Rao today met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as part of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) founder's exercise to thank all those parties which had supported the creation of India's 29th state.
Accompanied by his family members, Mr Rao, 60, had yesterday called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to thank her for taking the initiative in pushing the Telangana Bill through in Parliament during the just-concluded session - the last of the 15th Lok Sabha. Even though the two leaders reportedly did not discuss politics during the discussions, Mr Rao, TRS sources pointed out, is keen to forge formal ties with the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls that will be held simultaneously by May.
The TRS chief, sources said, is eager to become the first chief minister of Telangana with the help of the Congress. In return, his party is willing to leave a majority of the 17 Lok Sabha seats falling in the new state for the Congress. In the outgoing Lok Sabha, the TRS, which spearheaded the campaign for the creation of Telangana after splitting Andhra Pradesh, has a strength of 2. The Congress had bagged 12 of the 17 Telangana seats in 2009.
In the assembly, of the 119 constituencies falling in the Telangana region, the Congress has a share of 48. The TRS could only win 17 seats, but its tally increased to 23 after defections from other parties.
The Congress has indicated that it wants the TRS to merge with it, but Mr Rao and his close associates have had a rethink, and are now advocating a pre-poll alliance. The alliance between the two parties is likely to hold an edge over their rivals in Telangana in the looming electoral battle in view of the groundswell of public opinion in favour of Mrs Gandhi and the TRS.
But the Congress is expected to suffer severe reverses in Seemandhra.