Hyderabad:
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) seems to have decided to go the Shiv Sena and MNS way. After public and private property was vandalised during the Telangana bandh, on Wednesday it was the turn of Congress leaders like Renuka Chowdhary. Her office in Khammam was attacked, even as a fasting TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao continues to hold peace in Andhra Pradesh to ransom. (
Read: Tense Telangana: Andhra administration on alert)
Miscreants attacked former union minister Renuka Chowdhary's office in Khammam town and tried to set the place afire. A handwritten note, apparently signed TRS, warned Renuka for allegedly being against the cause of a separate Telangana. (
Watch: Renuka Chowdhury's house vandalised)
When informed about the incident, Renuka Chowdhary said: "They are trying to get some political mileage and I don't think we should give too much importance to anti-social elements because their intelligence is so limited that they are thrilled that they are on TV or somwhere. So I can only pity them, and let me tell you the law & order situation is under control and this kind of nonsense will not last too long...I don't care who is behind these attacks because these are small-time anti-social elements who are doing this for their personal gain and they won't last too long." (
Watch: Attackers want political mileage: Renuka)
Telangana has been on the boil ever since TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao was stopped from sitting on a fast-unto-death on Sunday. KCR himself had set the tone with his provocative statements.
"More than the Shiv Sena kind of approach will be there if a section of media continues to spit venom on the movement of Telangana," he had said last Thursday, before going on his fast over the weekend. (
Watch: KCR warned of 'serious consequences')
When Rao was arrested earlier this week, his party workers and student support groups went on the rampage. On Monday, students of Osmania University set several buses on fire. Three students are reported to have set themselves on fire in support of the Telangana cause. (
Watch: TRS workers go on rampage)
Even though the TRS did poorly in the elections in April-May this year, KCR knew even his critics would rally together for the cause of a separate Telangana. (
Dr Prannoy Roy blogs on Andhra violence)
The targeted violence is clearly a strategy to grab the attention of not just the media but also the Congress leadership in Delhi. The TRS hopes to shake off the limbo on Telangana and force an affirmative decision in favour of a separate state. (
Blog: On the rocks)
KCR's supporters, however, felt betrayed when they saw him accepting a glass of juice on Monday and breaking his fast. Realising that "Jai KCR" had turned into "KCR hai hai", Rao did a U-turn and accused the police of forcefully breaking his fast. Since then, he has resumed the fast inside Khammam hospital. (
In pics: The violent TRS show)
There have been worries about the condition of his health since he is diabetic, but Andhra Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy said: "KCR's health is stable, no need to worry. Government is appealing to him to withdraw his fast."
Trying to derive even more mileage, KCR's son K.T.Rama Rao, an MLA, has also demanded that Rao be shifted saying: "All the doctors and other officials of the administration in Khammam are from the Andhra region and therefore there is a threat to KCR's life here. So we want him to be shifted from Khammam to Hyderabad or Warangal."
Congress ministers from Telangana are now under pressure to take a stand on the statehood issue, instead of remaining on the fence.