Rao: Renews demand

Hyderabad, Oct. 21: Spurred by its success in the recent Siddipet byelection, the Telengana Rashtra Samiti plans to step up its campaign for a separate state.

Angry at the way electoral ally the Congress has tried to thwart its demand for a separate Telengana state, the Samiti plans to observe November 1?s Andhra Pradesh formation day as a ?protest day?.

MLAs and MPs belonging to the party decided this at a meeting here yesterday. Samiti spokesperson Madhusudhanachari said the decision is binding even on party MPs and members of the Andhra cabinet. ?We will boycott all the official celebrations on the AP formation day. All of our partymen, including ministers, MPs and MLAs, will wear black bands and observe it as a black day,? he said.

The Congress, which had allied with the Samiti for May?s Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, swept the state but has cooled to its ally?s Telengana demand.

The Samiti won the October 13 Siddipet byelection with a reduced majority but the Congress lost Asifnagar by 1,100 votes to a Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidate.

Differences between the allies have widened since Samiti chief and Union minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his party colleague A. Narendra made unsavoury remarks about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has turned a blind eye to the Samiti?s Telengana demand while the Congress functionaries have ensured that his repeated claims that a separate state would be formed in six months of coming to power remain unfounded.

But the Samiti chief has been emboldened by support from an unexpected quarter, the People?s War ? the Naxalite organisation has demanded a separate Telengana state at the recent peace talks.

The Samiti?s November 1 protest will embarrass the Congress in Hyderabad and Delhi alike.

The BJP had tried to steal the Telengana thunder from the Samiti by organising a Telengana Liberation day on September 17. It had hoisted flags at police headquarters.