TIRUPATI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu on Saturday criticised Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao for `sidelining' the Telangana movement for which the party was floated and utilising it as a forum merely to pursue his political agenda.

Addressing a district-level workshop of CPI (M) workers here, Mr. Raghavulu also accused Mr. Rao of being `power hungry' and criticised the party for its tie-up with a `communal' party like the BJP during the recent MLC elections.

He said the bitter war of attrition currently on between Mr. Rao and senior party leader A. Narendra signalled the start of the downfall of TRS.

He termed `unfortunate' the CPI's stand in favour of separate Telangana and said that the worst hit in the event of the bifurcation of the State would be tribals, farmers and minorities who constituted a major chunk in Telangana.

Cabinet expansion

The CPI (M) leader described Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's recent Cabinet expansion as a desperate bid to assuage the ruffled feelings of some senior Congress leaders and MLAs who were turning restive over his style of functioning. He said that the State Government by initially giving its `consent' to the Maharashtra Government to go ahead with the Babli project had `mortgaged' the riparian rights of the State and its farmers and was now beating its breast when the situation had gone out of control.

Mr. Raghavulu said the CPI (M) would launch its Bhoo Poratam (land struggle) from May 15.

Epicentre

Later talking to reporters he regretted that Hyderabad should become the `epicentre' for the shocks touched off by the infamous passport scandal and wanted the Chief Minister to order a detailed probe.

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