The drubbing that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) got in the elections — winning only two seats — puts a question mark on the fate of the movement for a separate Telangana state.

Political observers feel that the movement is finished now that the TRS had to bite dust in its own backyard. “People have clearly expressed their opinion in this election. They are neither excited nor taken in by the promise of a separate state,” says analyst I M Venkata Rao. “I don’t think they want a separate state, and, at least this time, they have expressed it loud and clear. The TRS forcibly fed on the issue creating a hype surrounding it. But it has been rejected and the party has fallen on its face,” he says.

The TRS has been spearheading the movement since 2001, whipping up the sentiment based on alleged discrimination towards the Telangana region. The party quoted empirical evidence that Telangana with 42 per cent of the state’s population is given the short shrift when it comes to allocation of river water, employment, and irrigation facilities, and budgetary allocation for development of backward areas.

The TRS led by K Chandrasekhara Rao rose to prominence on these issues. It paid off in the 2004 elections when, in alliance with the Congress, it contested elections for the first time and won 26 Assembly seats and five Lok Sabha seats. However, the party started falling apart soon after when it started pressuring the Congress for a separate state — 13 of its MLAs rebelled when asked to resign and chose to support the YSR-led Congress government.

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