No Cong merger talk till Parliament nod for Telangana: TRS

TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao today said any talk of merger with Congress can only be discussed after Parliament passed the Bill for formation of separate Telangana.
"I have said time and again about this merger (with Congress). Anything can be discussed after the Bill (on Telangana) is passed by both houses of Parliament i.E, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Then the process is complete. It is too early to talk before that. Anything can be discussed only after that," he told reporters here.
Rao was talking to reporters after a meeting of the party's state executive and other senior leaders.

Demanding that the Centre form the new state in such a way that the Telangana Government has full control over Hyderabad, he said his party would agitate otherwise.
"The Centre should treat Telangana state (to be created), the way it treats the 28 other states."
Rao thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Union Government for giving nod for formation of a new state out of Andhra Pradesh.

To a query, the TRS leader said he had already made it clear that he would not be Chief Minister of Telangana (post its formation) and that he would act as a "watchdog".

TRS spearheaded the agitation for separate Telangana ever since it was established by Rao, a former Union Minister, over a decade ago.
Rao had in the past indicated that he would merge his sub-regional party with the Congress if the UPA Government granted statehood to Telangana region.