HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leadership has asked its party cadre to show restraint towards the seven dissident MLAs since they are very much part of the organisation.

In a climb-down from its earlier call to the cadres to take out processions and burn their effigies, the party said that these MLAs would return to the mainstream sooner or later and that the party supporters must do nothing to provoke them.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, TRS general secretary V. Prakash, Koppula Eshwar, MLA, and party spokesman K. Dayanand, however, defended T. Harish Rao, nephew of party president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, against the dissidents' criticism.

Claiming that he would find a place (in history) for his role in Telangana, they held that he was largely instrumental in the TRS winning 26 Assembly and five Lok Sabha seats.

Irreparable harm

The TRS leaders criticised senior Congress leader G. Venkataswamy for stating that the UPA had given up on separate Telangana. They said such statements would do irreparable harm to the cause of separate Telangana "which has been clinched to the extent of 75 per cent. Now that the Bihar elections are over, the remaining 25 per cent will also be achieved."

Mr. Venkataswamy, they said, had violated the agreement reached in the presence of AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh to avoid making contentious statements on Telangana and to leave the matter for a decision by Ms. Sonia Gandhi.

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