TRS support to Cong to depend on separate state issue

If the State Assembly does not pass a resolution favouring a separate Telangana, he would deal with the Congress at the Centre and see that it is made a pre-condition to support it at the Centre, Rao added. If the Congress did not take the issue seriously, and if the NDA acceeded to his demand for a separate state, he said, his party could consider supporting the latter.

Rao also pointed out that the TRS and other groups, that had been fighting for smaller states, were likely to get 25 to 30 Lok Sabha seats. 8216;8216;Our support would become crucial to any party interested in forming the government,8217;8217; he said, adding that he would leave for Delhi on May 14 to attend a meeting of the Forum for Smaller Sates.

Ruling out the possibility of joining the Congress government, Rao said it would do so only when Parliament passed a resolution for the creation of a separate state of Telangana.

8216;8216;We will not be interested to share the government because our issue gets diluted. We are more interested in achieving the state of Telangana,8217;8217; he told NDTV.

Meanwhile, PTI reports from New Delhi said the Congress deputed senior leader Shivraj Patil as the observer to supervise the election of Congress Legislature Party leader at its meeting to be held in Hyderabad tomorrow.