Telangana: Congress seniors bank on Sonia

Favour increased efforts on statehood for region and tie-up with Telangana Rashtra Samiti

D. Srinivas pitches strongly with Sonia for alliance with TRS

PCC chief also meets Union Minister Jaipal Reddy to bring pressure on Centre

A week after Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi where he reportedly made a pitch that the Congress should go it alone in the elections, party leaders from Telangana stepped up efforts to convince the leadership on the statehood issue as also an alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

On a day of hectic activity in the party, APCC president D. Srinivas left for New Delhi to call on Ms. Gandhi, while his predecessor K. Keshava Rao met the Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao to appeal to him not to make further political moves till the high command came out with a stand on the issue. The TRS president is scheduled to announce a tie-up with the TDP-Left alliance on January 21.

Mr. Srinivas, in his 30-minute interaction with Ms Gandhi, strongly pitched for an alliance with the TRS at any cost and a positive announcement on the Telangana issue to give the party confidence to face the next elections.

Later, he is understood to have met Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy to discuss the strategy to pressure the Central leadership.

Another senior Congress leader, V. Hanumantha Rao, who is also in New Delhi, favoured an alliance with the TRS to improve the party’s chances in the next elections.

In a related development, senior Congress leaders from Telangana met at the residence of Mr. Keshava Rao.

The former PCC chief denied meeting the TRS chief but other leaders confirmed his interaction with Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Sources said the seniors were very insistent about an announcement from the high command. They expressed serious concern at the TRS moving closer to the TDP.

“The need of the hour for the high command is to make some positive announcement on Telangana so that the TRS chief can be persuaded to drop his move to sail with the TDP and Left,” a senior leader who attended the meeting pointed out.

Source:http://www.hindu.com