TRS rules out even poll alliance with Congress

A worker makes flags of the Congress Party at a workshop in New Delhi yesterday.

IANS/HyderabadIn a major setback, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) yesterday ruled out electoral alliance with the Congress Party for the forthcoming polls to the Lok Sabha and state assembly.After rejecting a merger with the Congress, the TRS has now refused to have an electoral alliance with the party, dashing the last hopes of its central leadership.Addressing TRS workers at the party headquarters, party chief K Chandrasekhara Rao made clear that there would be no poll alliance with the Congress.KCR, as Rao is known among his supporters, launched a counter attack on Congress leaders accusing them of betrayal.He asked if Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s statements were helpful for the alliance.The TRS chief reiterated that he had offered to merge his party with the Congress if a separate Telangana state was created without any conditions.The TRS had ruled out merger with the Congress after a bill was passed in parliament last month for formation of a separate Telangana state.“Let’s see from tomorrow if TRS MLAs will join the Congress or Congress MLAs will join us,” he challenged Congress leaders.KCR said the party would hold talks with the Communist Party of India (CPI) for the alliance.In other developments, Bharatiya Janata Party activists in Tamil Nadu are upset at the manner in which actor-turned-politician A Vijayakant floated the DMDK party, unilaterally announced its candidates and began the campaign on Friday.“The party cadres are really upset at the attitude of DMDK. The 10% vote share that the party is said to command should be discounted as a large number of its legislative assembly members are not with the party,” a party leader said.According to the senior leader, some more DMDK legislators are expected to lend their support to the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam prior to or after the general elections.In New Delhi, a close aide of Anna Hazare accused the social activist of making baseless allegations regarding the turnout at a recently held rally of West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in the national capital.Santosh Bharatiya, a former journalist, said Hazare should have kept his word despite the poor turnout at the rally.