HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Union Labour Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao is expected to meet Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on February 19 to seek support for separate Telangana.

Mr. Rao along with his Cabinet colleague A. Narendra is likely to meet Mr. Singh and BJP general secretary Arun Jaitely to solicit support for the struggle to achieve a separate State. The TRS chief announced this at a meeting of the party executive and the TRS Legislature Party on Tuesday. Only 16 of the 26 party MLAs attended the meeting.

Away in Delhi

Mr. Narendra could not participate as he was away in New Delhi. Six rebel legislators -- D. Srinivasa Rao, B. Shara Rani, T. Jayaprakash Reddy, G. Mukunda Reddy, S.Santosh Reddy and Narayan Rao Patel -- stayed away. Four other loyalists sought permission from the party leadership to skip the meeting.

Party spokespersons V. Prakash and K. Yadagiri Reddy said once the BJP supported their cause, the Congress and other parties would be forced fall in line. They pointed out that Mr. Rao had exuded confidence that the movement for Telangana would gain momentum.

They said the `maha sainik sammelan' of the Telangana Jagaran Sena would be conducted at Parade grounds, Secunderabad, on March 20. A team of six sainiks would be recruited from each village in Telangana. The party would take up membership drive between February 17 and 20 and constitute village committees before February 28. The leaders said Mr. Rao would lead a delegation of all the ST MPs to the President, the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson demanding a halt to the Polavaram project.

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