In 2001, though, Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the then Union Home Minister L K Advani seeking creation of Telangana state in the aftermath of formation of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal.
But Advani turned down the plea stating that the demand could not be considered without a resolution by the state Assembly, according to Congress MP Vundavalli Arunkumar, who hails from coastal Andhra.
K Chandrasekhar Rao picked up the statehood demand from where the Congress left after he walked out of the Telugu Desam and launched his own Telangana Rashtra Samiti in 2001.
Since then he has become the flag-bearer of the statehood "movement", invariably forcing other parties also to carry the mantle for their political existence.
In 2004, the Congress forged an electoral alliance with the TRS and went on to form a coalition government.
The tie-up continued at the national level and TRS became part of the Union government as well.
Within two years, however, the parties parted ways as the Congress could not address the statehood issue despite repeated promises.
A separate state was first sought on the development plank, citing "injustice" to Telangana from the time when the erstwhile Nizam
