CCSAP Report - Ministry of Home Affairs

June 7, 2004, mention was made that “the Government will consider the demand
for the formation of a Telangana State at an appropriate time after due
consultations”. The UPA Government accordingly constituted a three-Member
Committee of the Cabinet Ministers under the Chairmanship of Shri Pranab
Mukherjee in November, 2004 with Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Shri
Dayanidhi Maran as Members. The Committee did take up this matter further,
but no conclusion seems to have been arrived at.
1.4.06 On the reported grounds that the Central Government had been
indecisive over the delivery of its electoral promise to the TRS for creating a
separate Telangana, although (i) as per the election manifesto of the Congress
Party no such definite promise had been made; and ii) in the CMP also no
guaranteed assurance or time limit had been indicated, TRS in September, 2006
withdrew support to the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. The other
main reason prominently quoted was the differences between TRS President
K.Chandrasekhara Rao and the Congress Chief Minister Dr. Y.S.Rajasekhara
Reddy. TRS ministers left their positions in Government both at the centre and in
the state. Subsequently, all the four TRS MPs and the sixteen MLAs resigned
their seats in the first week of March 2008 over this issue, forcing bye-elections.
The bye-elections were held in May, 2008. In the run-up to the elections, while
the TRS went all out in supporting the cause of Telangana and called the bye-
elections as a referendum on the issue, both the Congress and the TDP
maintained that the bye-elections did not lend themselves to being seen as a
referendum on Telangana issue, as they too were not opposed to the formation
of a separate Telangana state. However, the election results proved quite
disappointing to the TRS which could retain only seven out of sixteen MLA seats
and two out of four MP seats.
1.4.07 On January 31, 2009, before the State Assembly elections, Shri
K.Chandrasekhara Rao, President, TRS announced that TRS had joined the
„Mahakutami‟ (grand alliance). The grand alliance was headed by Telugu Desam
Party and included the Third Front and the Left parties. The main purpose of
52