Congress on Wednesday received a set back in the run up to special session of parliament beginning from July 21, as Telengana Rastra Samiti with a strength of 3 members in Lok Sabha has decided to side with BSP to vote against the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

TRS, a former ally of the UPA is the second party who even after informally announcing its support to the nuke deal reversed the decision. Akali Dal has also announced that it would not vote in favour of UPA merely on the ground that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a Sikh. Telengana Rashtra Samiti, which not just said that it would vote against the nuclear deal but also decided to join ranks with BSP supremo Mayawati to ensure the fall of the government.

The TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao while announcing his party's decision said TRS was also in touch with Independent MPs to try to take them on board in voting against the UPA in trust vote.

The TRS had not long ago left the UPA after supporting it for nearly four years. The Congress had promised to look into the TRS demand for a separate Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. However, after getting ample hints that the UPA was not serious on the issue, the regional party had withdrawn support to the UPA earlier this year.

Rao had earlier said that TRS would help bail out the UPA in July 22 trust vote if there was concrete assurance from the Congress that it would look into the Telangana demand again. It made up its mind to go with those opposing the nuclear deal as well as the UPA government after waiting for several days to receive a positive signal from the Congress on the issue.

However, one of the rebel MP of TRS, A Narendra is likely to back the UPA in the trust vote. Another party on which the UPA is banking is Deve Gowda's JD(S), but it has also left the government guessing and is yet to make its stand clear.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is also giving trouble to the UPA, as it is demanding its chief Shibu Soren's reinstatement as union minister for coal. Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal is yet to formally spell out its support for the UPA even though it is most likely to support the government. Singh is demanding a cabinet berth in the present ministry in lieu of his support.

The National Conference is also keeping the UPA strategists guessing. Its core group met Tuesday and left it to party chief Omar Abdullah to take a final call on whether or not to support the nuclear deal.

EMAIL THIS NEWS COMMENTS No comments yet