Small Indian party quits ruling coalition, accuses it of ‘betrayal’

INDIA: A small Indian regional party has pulled out of the Congress-led coalition government, accusing it of betraying a pledge to create a new state.

The move, announced late Tuesday by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), still left the government with a solid majority in the key decision-making lower house of parliament.

“There’s no fun continuing in an alliance where the allies are cheated and betrayed by the Congress,” TRS chief K. Chandrasekara Rao told reporters in the Indian capital.

The TRS, which holds five lower house seats, said it was unhappy over the government’s failure to create a separate state — Telangana — to represent Telegu speakers in southern Andhra Pradesh.

Even with the party’s exit, the government still has the support of close to 330 lawmakers in the 545-seat lower house, the Press Trust of India reported.

Congress had struck a deal with the TRS, promising to consider its call for a separate state in exchange for support in fighting the 2004 elections that saw the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party turfed from power.

The coalition had said in its programme that the separate Telangana state would be created at “an appropriate time on the basis of consensus” among its members.

The TRS believes a separate state would bolster economic development in the poor coastal region.

Rao, who served as junior labour minister, and fellow party member A. Narendra, who was junior rural development minister, said they were quitting their portfolios.Rao planned to launch a hunger strike in New Delhi later on Wednesday to highlight “Congress betraying the people of Telangana”, the United News of India reported.

He was due to be joined in the hunger strike by some 300 supporters.

New Delhi, Wednesday, AFP