Andhra Pradesh   

Rebel TRS MLAs set 48-hour deadline

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: In yet another twist to the crisis in the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), rebel MLAs have set a 48-hour deadline for party president K. Chandrasekhara Rao to publicly withdraw the charges levelled against them, failing which they have threatened to go ahead with meetings in all the Telangana districts.

A day after calling on Mr. Rao in New Delhi, the rebel legislators — M. Satyanarayana Reddy, D. Srinivas Rao, B. Shara Rani and T. Jayaprakash Reddy — at a press conference here on Tuesday demanded that Mr. Rao must express apology and unconditionally retract his allegations that they had accepted money from the Congress to split the party.

"We are not going to attend any meetings, including that of the TRS Legislature Party on December 3, till we get a response. We will announce on December 3 our plans to hold public meetings beginning with Warangal," Mr. Satyanarayana Reddy said. "Our image was tarnished at the Warangal meeting and we have every right to put forth our views to the people," he said.

They said the party leadership could not test their patience forever and hence they had fixed the deadline. Mr. Srinivasa Rao and Ms. Shara Rani flayed the haste with which State secretary Ch. Umesh Rao, party chief's nephew, was suspended. "When our issue has been kept pending, where was the urgency in suspending Mr. Umesh Rao," Mr. Srinivas Rao questioned.

Later, TRS spokesman K. S. Ratnam disapproved of the rebels' deadline. "They can meet the party president and seek clarifications instead of making public their demand," he said, and added that Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao had never made critical remarks against the dissidents.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rebel TRS MLAs set 48-hour deadline
School correspondent, two others arrested
Gandhian body to train teachers on AIDS
Not the way to go
Briefly

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu