<<–2/”>a href=”https://exam.pscnotes.com/5653-2/”>p>On January 31, 2009, before the State Assembly Elections, Shri K.Chandrasekhara Rao, President, TRS announced that TRS had joined the Mahakutami (grand alliance). The grand alliance was headed by Telugu Desam Party and included the Third Front and the Left parties. The main purpose of Mahakutami was to contest the upcoming State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections with a view to win the same as a United Front against the Congress party as the Congress party, in their opinion, was not taking a decision on Telangana. The BJP, though having not been able to resolve the Telangana issue during the NDA regime up to 2004, continued to maintain the earlier stand that their policy was for smaller states and if they won the forthcoming elections (Lok Sabha and Assembly), they would be in a position to create Telangana. In the meanwhile, the Congress ruled State Government constituted a Joint Committee of Legislators under the Chairmanship of the then Finance Minister, Shri K. Rosaiah, on Telangana related issues. However, some of the opposition parties such as BJP, CPI(M), CPI and TRS replied that they did not wish to be associated with the said Committee. The TDP also did not respond to the Governments request. The Committee was thus formed, having seven legislators from the Congress Party representing all the three regions and one from AIMIM. With major parties not co-operating and the events taking an entirely different turn by the year end (covered in the subsequent para) the Committee could not move too much forward on its Terms of Reference.
In the Assembly elections of May 2009, TRS won only 10 seats, showing a further decline in its overall popularity in the region. To recall, TRS had twenty six seats in 2004 which came down to seventeen seats after 2008 bye-elections (which were held only for sixteen Assembly segments) and in 2009, as stated above, it further shrank to ten seats only. In the Lok Sabha, it won only two seats, coming down from the five seats it had held in the previous Lok Sabha. It would thus be seen that the popularity of TRS in 2009 had dipped substantially from 2004 levels. Many political pundits attribute the impressive success of the TRS in 2004 to their alliance with the Congress party.
Soon after the 2009 Assembly elections, TRS left Mahakutami and tied up with the BJP, the alliance which exists even at present. The flip-flop electoral policy of TRS right from its constitution in 2001, also came to the fore with its latest alliance with the BJP. Its leader and some of its MLAs who were part of TDP, had left TDP to form TRS in the year 2001; in 2004 elections it entered into an alliance with the Congress Party, left the alliance in 2006, contested the bye-elections for sixteen Assembly seats in 2008 on its own, joined the Mahakutami led by TDP before 2009 elections and finally left the alliance soon after the elections and joined hands with the BJP. Be that as it may, the Congress party won the State Assembly elections with a comfortable majority and formed the Government in May 2009. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won thirty three out of forty two seats from Andhra Pradesh and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA-2) again formed the Government at the Centre. It may be relevant to mention here that unlike the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of UPA-1, the NCMP of UPA-2 did not make any mention of the Telangana issue.
It may be noted that there was no specific noticeable incident of major public concern over the Telangana issue during the months of MayNovember, 2009. Incidentally, during this period elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took place on November 23, 2009, which TRS did not contest. The President of TRS made a statement that since we have a larger agenda like attainment of a separate Telangana we have decided not to participate in the GHMC Polls which is a minor issue having no great consequence. He also made a statement that, instead, his party was making an elaborate plan for the indefinite fast to be undertaken by him in the last week November, 2009. However, other parties held that TRS did not contest these elections as the party did not have any support in greater Hyderabad. Notwithstanding this, TRS once again started taking an aggressive posture on the Telangana issue from November 2009 onwards. The Chief Minister, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy suddenly passed away in a helicopter crash on September 2, 2009.
On November 9, 2009, the TRS president Chandrasekhar Rao wrote to the President of India about his intention to go on fast-unto-death in order to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people of Telangana for a separate state. He also publicly announced that the intended fast would start on November, 29, 2009, as planned.