Telangana crisis snowballs, Congress in a political oven

New Delhi: A rudderless Congress on ways to tackle the burgeoning Telangana crisis now finds itself in an even stickier situation with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrashekhar Rao seeking appointment to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other UPA leaders today. The situation was got worse on the 21st day of the general strike as Road Transport Corporation buses stayed off the roads. Work across government and private sectors are already affected seriously. An artificial power shortage of 4-hours everyday is also compounding problems for the industry and citizens.[caption id=“attachment_97783” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“TRS head Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao. “] [/caption] Rao took the strike to another level on Sunday as he sat on a token fast at Rajghat demanding a separate statehood for Telangana. The Congress is finding itself in a corner as leaders from the region may be forced to quit the party owing to public pressure. Party MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy already relieved himself from Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy’s cabinet bowing to people’s pressure. There is also talk of a new political party to be floated in the region but nothing is final as of now. Rao’s attempt to nationalise the issue may give the struggle a new impetus but in the meanwhile people and the Andhra Pradesh’s exchequer continue to suffer till a solution is reached.