The Congress today set about working out the Telengana issue brewing within the party, considering a ‘‘loose alliance’’ with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti that is spearheading the movement.After an election strategy meeting that lasted six hours, senior party leaders reportedly decided to ‘‘consider positively’’ if the TRS were to ‘‘unconditionally support’’ the Congress. Emerging from the meeting, a senior leader said: ‘‘The Congress argument is simple. If Chandrababu Naidu were to become CM again, the issue of statehood would end up in cold storage for the next five years. Now it is up to the TRS to decide if they can afford that.’’Senior AICC leaders Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Ahmed Patel were closeted with state leaders Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy, D.Srinivas and N. Janardhan Reddy. Across the table were Congress leaders Chenna Reddy and Keshav Rao, who have grouped as Congress Forum for Telengana.‘‘The Congress is hoping to consolidate on the anti-TDP and anti-BJP votes in the state. For this, the views of various leaders on an alliance with the TRS were heard,’’ Azad said. If elections cannot be held in six months, Centre’s Rule should be imposed in the state, he said.The party slammed the TDP’s call for an ‘‘integrated state’’. ‘‘The CM talks of an integrated state even when he is allied with the BJP which had resolved for dividing Andhra Pradesh,’’ party chief spokesman Jaipal Reddy said.
