Chiru to join forces with Cong against Jagan in AP

HYDERABAD: Weighed down by the Telangana movement and Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's revolt, the ruling Congress in the state is all set to receive a major boost to its morale with the Prajarajyam Party led by Chiranjeevi all set to merge 'unconditionally' with the grand old party on Sunday.

A meeting between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chiranjeevi has been fixed on Sunday to formalise PRP's merger with the Congress. Highly placed Congress sources told TOI that the meeting would take place at 11 am. The date and the timing of the meeting was conveyed to the PRP on Wednesday morning, the sources added. The announcement of the merger can happen the same day of Sonia-Chiru meeting or a day later.

The PRP was formed on August 26, 2008, in Tirupati and though it threatened to give the Congress a run for its money, it ended up winning only 18 Assembly seats and drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls. Of the PRP MLAs, two are already with Jagan and some others are in talks with the YSR son.

"The merger would do good for both the parties. While for the Congress, it will ensure that the Kiran Kumar regime being threatened to be pulled down by Jagan is safe for some time at least, for Chiranjeevi, it can neutralise the Jagan factor as well as be a great opportunity to build himself as the most popular leader of the post-YSR Congress before the 2014 elections," said a Congress leader.

The PRP chief, who is camping in Tirupati, is expected to return to Hyderabad on Thursday and hold a meeting with his senior party leaders on the merger issue. "The merger will be unconditional. After giving the move much thought, Chiranjeevi has decided that he would stand to gain more in the long-term than extracting a few cabinet berths at this juncture," said a loyalist of the actor.