This refers to the report, “Southern shock for Congress” (March 4). The blunt refusal of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to merge with the Congress should come as no surprise to anybody but the top echelons of the Congress.
They were unbelievably smug or naïve to expect that Mr K Chandrashekar Rao would forget the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy's back-stabbing in the run-up to the election in 2009 and later. His subsequent attempt to rise like a phoenix from the ashes with a fast unto death was cut short by Union Minister P Chidambaram's tactical announcement in December 2009, again leaving him frustrated.
This time, however, Mr Rao had planned meticulously, leaving the Congress, with its Telangana web of intrigue, in shambles. With even the DMK dismissing the Congress in Tamil Nadu and the lok Janshakti Party deserting it for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, the Congress today is a pathetic sight on all political fronts.