In a sudden development, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao called off his indefinite fast in a hospital in Khammam on Monday evening.
He accepted a glass of fruit juice offered to him at the Khammam Government Hospital in the presence of party MLA and nephew T. Harish Rao, besides other party leaders, thus ending the fast he began on Monday morning.
Mr. Rao was earlier shifted amid tight security from the Khammam sub-jail to the district headquarters hospital after a team of doctors from Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad, examined the fasting leader. Doctors said they found his condition to be stable but persuaded him to call off his fast as he suffers from hypertension and diabetes.
TRS leaders did not explain the reasons for Mr. Rao's unexpected decision but the government heaved a sigh of relief in the expectation that it would help ease tension that has gripped the Telangana region for the past two days.