KCR rules out merger with Congress

In a significant development, TelanganaRashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Raoon Monday ruled out merging his party with the Congress.

“Under no circumstances are we going to merge TRS in the Congress. I received [an] overwhelming number of messages from all over Telangana against merging the party in Congress,” Mr. Rao told reporters after a marathon politburo meeting.

“We will constitute a committee to look into alliances in future.”

The decision is a major setback for the Congress. There was near unanimity among the TRS leaders against merger on the ground that the Congress had never taken the party into confidence during the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2014. Mr. Rao is piqued that the Congress had not considered even a single suggestion it had made in the preparation of the Bill.