TRS predicts early LS polls, calls party cadres to get ready 

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K Chandrasekhar Rao today predicted early elections to Lok Sabha and exhorted his party cadre to be battle-fit to defeat the ruling Congress at the hustings.

"My reading of the political situation is that we are heading for elections before February 15. The Parliament may be dissolved any moment from now," Rao said while addressing a party meeting here.

Rao, whose party is in the forefront of efforts to forge alliance with other opposition parties, said his aim was to prevent a split in anti-Congress votes.

Accusing Congress of "betraying" Telangana people by back-tracking on its poll promise of granting statehood for Telangana, the MP from karimnagar said, "We need to teach a fitting lesson to Congress in the coming elections."

The TRS, which is fighting for Telangana statehood cause, had contested the 2004 elections in 

alliance with Congress and was part of the UPA at the Centre and Congress government in the state.

However, the sub-regional party subsequently pulled out of the Congress-led alliance in protest against the Centre's failure to carve out separate state.

The TRS, which suffered reverses in the recent by-elections in the state, is in talks with the main opposition TDP and Left parties for a possible alliance ahead of the next year's elections.

Meanwhile, Rao will embark on a "Bus Yatra" from October 15 from the backward Adilabad district. During the first phase, he will cover Adilabad, Warangal and Karimnagar districts, addressing several road-side meetings, party sources said.

Chiru's mass-contact tour from 'Vijaya Dasami'

Over a month after launching his Praja Rajyam party, actor-politician Chiranjeevi will kick off his maiden mass-contact programme on October 9, coinciding with 'Vijaya Dasami'.

The tour would begin from Ichapuram in Srikakulam district, a small town along Orissa border, and cover the neighbouring Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts in north coastal region, party spokesman P Prabhakar said here today.

During the nine-day tour in the first phase, each district would be covered in three days.

Last month, Chiranjeevi had visited Siricilla, a handloom town in Karimnagar district, to meet the families of weavers who committed suicide in distress.

Chiranjeevi's criticism and more suicides by weavers in the last one week had put the Congress government in a spot.

Promising to end the misery of weavers if he comes to power, the actor formed a party panel, headed by a retired IAS officer, to study the crisis of the debt-ridden community and to suggest measures to address the issue.

He had also visited Polepalli in backward Mahabubnagar district to meet the families displaced by pharma Special Economic Zone (SEZ).