HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress legislators, who danced to Telangana tunes on Thursday, the final day of their two-day hunger strike at the Indira Park here, had an uninvited guest: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.Much to their discomfort, he materialised along with his colleagues, T Harish Rao and Etela Rajender, around 2 p.m just as he did when they had similarly sat on a hunger strike at the New MLA quarters not so long ago over the cases booked against Telangana students.The squirming Congress leaders, however, accorded the TRS chief a warm welcome for obvious reasons, despite recent strictures from their bosses in Delhi for hobnobbing him.Chandrasekhar Rao, with his inimitable style, though, soon put them at ease. In fact, he wrapped around his neck, the traditional Congress man’s Kanduva (cloth) and batted on their behalf from the podium. “It’s not T Congress leaders who are defying the party high command,” he asserted and like a Congress insider, said: “I have indications from Delhi that a positive statement on Telangana would be made by Congress in two weeks.” He “appreciated” the Congress leaders’ courage in resigning to their posts and advised them not to back off at this stage as “now Telangana is a certainty.” Before his arrival, Telangana ministers, who did the vanishing trick on Wednesday, returned to the protest camp this morning to reaffirm their commitment to the Telangana cause.Suspended TDP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy too sought to do a KCR and descended on the venue. But the Congress leaders were wary of rubbing shoulders with him. Though they let him stay, they made their reluctance to join hands with him pretty obvious.If this was the political drama of the day, on the ground, the Telangana stir appeared headed towards another confrontation with the government. The joint action committee of the Telangana NGOs’ association led by its chairman K Swamy Goud served a notice on the government, warning that they might go on an indefinite strike any time after Aug 1 if the Centre did not make an announcement on the separate state issue.Meanwhile, the rail roko by Telangana protestors paralysed train services. Protestors damaged the car of Stamps and Registration Minister Thota Narasimha while he was on way to Hyderabad from Nekkonda where he had to get down from the Gautami Express.
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