TRS chief quits UPA govt

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) today pulled out of the UPA government, slamming the Congress party for "betraying" the people of Telangana.

TRS chief and Labour Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and Minister of State for Rural Development A Narendra resigned from the Union Council of Ministers. They sent their seven-page resignation letters to the Prime Minister's Office in the evening.

Rao declared that his party was also going to withdraw support to the UPA coalition. "Once you are out of the government, you are out of the UPA," he told reporters. Last week, the TRS chief had threatened to pull out if his demands for a separate Telengana state were not met by August 22.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi termed the TRS ministers' resignation as "very disappointing and unfortunate". He expressed hope that the TRS would not ally with any communal party.

Although the TRS' decision came as a blow to the UPA regime's image as a coalition manager, loss of five TRS MPs will have little bearing on its stability as the UPA and its allies have 330 MPs in the 545-member House.

Earlier in the day, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi presided over a meeting of UPA constituents who urged the TRS to stay on in the coalition.

Later on, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had a meeting with TRS leaders and the Left parties to build a consensus on a separate Telangana.

The Left parties re-iterated their opposition to the creation of a new state, while the Congress did not go beyond a proposal for a Second States' Reorganisation Commission.