Party all set to pull out of UPA: TRS chief

HYDERABAD: After resigning from the Union cabinet and Lok Sabha membership, the Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao is all set to pull out of the Congress-led UPA.

"I will be submitting a letter to the President conveying my party's decision to withdraw from the UPA," Rao said on Saturday.

Rao would visit New Delhi on September 20 or 23 to meet Speaker Somanath Chatterjee and explain the reasons that prompted him to quit his Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat.

During this visit, the former Union Minister would also call on the President and complete the formality of parting ways with the Congress.

Firmly ruling out reconsidering his decision, Rao, who had sent in his resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker on September 12, said that the by-election to Karimnagar would be a referendum on Telangana statehood issue and would mark the downfall of the ruling Congress.

Rao's assertion about his imminent exit from UPA comes against the backdrop of efforts by Congress high command to mollify him and prevent the break-up.

Getting into a damage-control mode after Rao's resignation move, AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy repeatedly asserted that TRS was still a part of UPA.

"Even at this stage, if Congress leadership comes up with an assurance on Telangana state within a timeframe, I will withdraw my resignation," Rao said.