Congress, TRS verbal duel intensifies ahead of polls

HYDERABAD: After falling out on joining forces for the elections, Congress and TRS are now engaged in a war of words in the run-up to the polls.

Claiming that it was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who made the dream of separate Telangana become a reality, former deputy chief minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha today alleged that TRS went back on its promise of merging with Congress.

Recalling that TRS had also promised to make a Dalit leader the Chief Minister of Telangana, he charged that the sub-regional party's leadership is synonymous with "betrayal". Meanwhile, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been saying that "reconstruction" of Telangana can be ensured by TRS alone, alleged that it was Congress and TDP which were responsible for several development problems in the region.

Dashing the last hopes of the Congress, the TRS president had yesterday categorically ruled out even an electoral alliance with the party for the forthcoming polls to Lok Sabha and state Assembly.

"They say KCR betrayed them but what was the betrayal," he questioned, referring to remarks made by AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh on TRS' refusal to merge with the Congress after the creation of Telangana. Addressing his party workers at TRS office here yesterday, he had pointed out that they had proposed merger of TRS with Congress to secure statehood for the region and prevent suicides by hundreds of youth. "But now, people are against our merger and hence we are going by their wish," he said.