Merge TRS with our party, become Telangana-CM candidate: Congress to Chandrashekhar Rao

NEW DELHI: The Congress High Command has made a decisive offer to clinch the merger of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with the party. TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao has been told that if he merges his party with the Congress once the Telangana Bill is passed by Parliament in February, he would be projected as the Congress’ chief ministerial candidate in the first ever Assembly election in the new Telangana state due along with April-may Lok Sabha polls, an informed Congress source told ET.

"Chandrashekhar Rao had publicly commitment that TRS with the Congress once Telangana is created. We are confident, the Telangana Bill will be passed in the coming Parliament session and we hope Rao will keep his word. If that happens, as the face of the recent Telenagana statehood agitation, he could be the rightful candidate for the chief ministership in the new state", said the source while hasten to add, "If TRS does not (opt for merger), Congress certainly will go ahead and fight the polls and form our government in Telengana. It is now up to him"..

This even as the AICC has instructed AP Government and that the Telangana Bill, now being taken up for discussion in state Assembly amid expected pandemonium, "be returned to the President with the state Assembly’s view by 26, January", the source said. The Centre plans to push the Bill through in February session at any cost. The resolution at the 17, January AICC session will also record party’s commitment to the creation of Telangagna state.

The offer of chief ministership to Rao, it is learnt, came during the course of behind the scene negotiations for merger between the Congress and him over the past couple of months. The TRS side’s expression of interest in discussing merger has also prompted the AICC leadership to roll-back its earlier plan to admit into their party some senior TRS leaders who had approached them.