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Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

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National

Congress-TRS relations on the rocks

By Dasu Kesava Rao

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 13. The delicate ties between the Congress and its ally, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, have come under fresh strain. With barely a month to go for two byelections in the State, both sides have threatened to review them.

K. Chandrasekhara Rao, TRS president and Union Minister, has caused resentment with his remarks against the Congress president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, at a party meeting on Saturday.

Mr. Rao rejected the Congress stand of a second State Reorganisation Commission to look into the demand for a Telangana state and said that if the party went back on its promise, "we will drag even Sonia Gandhi and Rajasekhara Reddy to the bazaar."

Mr. Rao's comments triggered an instant reaction from Congressmen who took to the streets, burnt his effigy and demanded that he apologise. The Congress got support from an unexpected quarter. N. Rajakumari, president of the Telugu Desam's women's wing, said it was an insult to Indian womanhood. She had earlier been president of the Mahila Congress.

Congressmen here had put up with the TRS leader's claim that he did not need to deal with the Chief Minister, the APCC president or other State leaders because of his equation with the Congress high command, which had reassured him on his demand for a separate Telangana State. Dragging Ms. Gandhi's name was perhaps the limit, they feel.

The phone lines were busy at Gandhi Bhavan, the Chief Minister's office and 10 Janpath, New Delhi, as the APCC president, D. Srinivas, the AICC general-secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh, Digivjay Singh, and the Chief Minister discussed the "provocation." The second-rung leaders faxed a flood of letters to the AICC office demanding action.

Mr. Rao also appears to have realised that he had gone too far. In a damage control exercise, he called the media to explain that it was not his intention to insult or hurt Ms. Gandhi, whom he described only the other day as a "devatha of three-crore Telangana people." In a fit of emotion, he said, he had talked of "dragging [Ms. Gandhi] to the bazaar," but in the native Telangana idiom, it only meant agitating on the issue forcefully. He also explained the matter to Mr. Digvijay Singh. Even while rallying round Mr. Rao, another TRS leader and Union Minister, A. Narendra, said that if the Congress reneged on its promise, his party would also review the ties.

As far as Congressmen are concerned, the damage has already been done. Mr. Rao's clarification did not assuage their hurt feelings. "Enough is enough of this love-hate relationship," they say. Both Dr. Reddy and Mr. Srinivas have said that if things continue like this, the party would have to review the alliance. The Congress had agreed to let the TRS contest the October 13 byelection to the Siddipet Assembly seat, which was vacated by Mr. Rao in preference to the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat. On Monday, Dr. Reddy said in Visakhapatnam that if the TRS intended to part ways, it was free to do so.

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