The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and its leader K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) continued to keep the Congress guessing on the issue of a possible merger.
Though KCR met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, discussions on the merger are yet to take any concrete shape.
Sources in both the parties indicated that talks with Congress General Secretary in-charge Digvijaya Singh were mainly around an alliance, rather than a merger.
KCR also met President Pranab Mukherjee to thank him for the creation of Telangana.
With Telangana becoming a reality, there is resignation in the AICC about the inevitability of TRS changing its tack on KCR’s earlier promise of a merger with the Congress. The majority view in the TRS is not in favour of an immediate merger. There are two arguments to support this view. One is that the Congress is likely to treat TRS as a “junior partner”. The second is that its leaders will not get any prominent position in the Congress.
TRS leaders, therefore, are pushing KCR to strike a hard bargain with the Congress ahead of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
There is another argument against the TRS’ merger with the Congress — the latter's promise of CM post for KCR.
The advice to Rao from the party ranks is that a merger should be attempted only after he has assumed the office of the Chief Minister. They feel Congress leaders such as present Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha may throw a challenge to Rao’s leadership in the future.
The Congress, meanwhile, reminded KCR of his merger offer. “We are expecting TRS to join us. Rao has been saying that he would work with Sonia Gandhi if Telangana was created.
Now that the Bill has been passed, there is no reason for him to continue as a separate entity,” Union Minister Sarvey Satyarnarayana told reporters after a meeting with Sonia. Sources in the Congress indicated that they will pursue KCR for a merger ahead of the elections. Informal negotiations are also on with former Congress leaders including K Keshava Rao to impress upon the TRS for a merger. The Congress believes that a merger will help it to sweep the newly-formed State.