Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is all set to quit the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on Tuesday as the ruling coalition is yet to come forward with a clear statement on the demand for separate statehood to Telangana region.
While Congress leaders are busy making last minute efforts to persuade the TRS not to pull out, the regional party is gearing up for a mass agitation on the issue that has been hanging fire for nearly four decades.
TRS leaders Union Minister for Labour K Chandrasekhara Rao and Minister of State for Rural Development A Narendra have decided to submit their resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UPA meeting on Tuesday.
They were demanding that the UPA make a categorical announcement that a bill to create a separate state would be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.
TRS, which had fought last 2004 elections in alliance with Congress, has five members in Lok Sabha and its pullout will not affect the stability of the government.
Rao has also decided to launch a 'fast unto death' at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Wednesday. TRS leaders, who are all camping in Delhi, on Monday, reviewed the arrangements for the protest programme.
The TRS chief is upset over the delay in the Pranab Mukherjee committee submitting its report. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had set up the three-member committee last year to look into the demand for a separate Telangana state.
Rao had announced that he would abide by the final decision of Sonia Gandhi on the issue.
Pressure was also mounting on Rao and Narendra from both within and outside the party to resign from their posts and launch a movement for a separate state.
Rao had quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and founded the TRS in 2001 to revive the demand for separate state.
The demand for separate statehood to the backward Telangana region that comprises 10 districts, including Hyderabad, is more than three decades old. More than 300 people had died in violent stirs in the early 1970s.
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