The Congress on Wednesday said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has given indications of a possible merger with the national party, a claim immediately rejected by the regional outfit.
“As far as merger of TRS with Congress is concerned, we are very happy that KCR has met Congress president and party vice president Rahul Gandhi and he has indicated merger of TRS with Congress party,” Singh said.
However, within hours of Singh’s comment, TRS leader and Rao’s son K T Ramarao made it clear that his party was under no obligation to merge with the Congress. “We are not obliged to either merge or even have a pre-poll alliance with the Congress,” Ramarao said in Hyderabad.
TRS leaders said that any decision on merger or alliance with the Congress would be taken only after a separate state of Telangana is formally carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
They said Rao had met the Congress leadership and the prime minister only to thank them for their efforts for the passage of the Telangana bill in Parliament.
A section of the TRS leaders feel that the party would lose its identity if it merged with the Congress just like filmstar-turned-politician K Chiranjeevi’s party — Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) which won 18 seats in the last Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. The PRP later merged with the Congress and Chiranjeevi was sent to the Rajya Sabha and made a Union minister.
Rao is keen to become the first Chief Minister of Telangana and has set this as a pre-condition for the merger.
