KCR does Sonia darshan after Telangana

Hyderabad: The meeting that TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao had with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday was confined to thanking her for granting Telangana statehood, but a detailed political dialogue between the two pa-rties will be initiated soon.

Mrs Gandhi told Mr Rao that AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh will be in touch with him soon. “Our meeting with Sonia Gandhi today is just to thank her for granting a separate state of Telangana. No politics was discussed. The political dialogue will follow. She has told me that Digvijay Singh will keep in touch with me. I agreed to that,” Mr Rao told newsmen after the meeting.

Mr Rao and 12 members of his family, including nephew T. Harish Rao, son K.T. Rama Rao and daughter Kavita, met Mrs Gandhi. The meeting was confined to an exchange of pleasantries and group photographs.

According to a TRS source, Mr Rao will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, to thank them for supporting the formation of the state of Telangana, which the TRS has fought long and hard for.

The TRS chief also gave in writing concerns that the people of Telangana have, and has asked Mrs Gandhi to look into these and to incorporate them in case the Centre brings in an Ordinance or announces a special package for the region. Mr Rao will return to Hyderabad on February 26 to participate in celebrations organised by the party from Shamshabad to the Gun Park.

“The election notification is expected in the first week of March. There is no hurry to have tieups with anyone. But we will be forced to have a political dialogue with the Congress. The nature of the tieup with the Congress will be known only when Mr Rao meets party leaders,” said a key TRS leader.

Rao also held talks with Digvijay Singh who is in-charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, about a possible merger or alliance between the two parties.