The public bravado and aggressiveness being displayed by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao is actually meant to extract a good deal from the Congress.
The TRS leaders had leaked to the media on Thursday that KCR was not keen on merging his party with the Congress and that he would rather go it alone in the coming general elections.
The recent opinion poll, commissioned by a national media group, was said to be the sources of immense confidence for KCR.
However, sources said that by adopting such a posturing, KCR wants to increase his bargaining power and raise the stakes.
The Pink Panther wants the merger to be done entirely on his own terms.
It is said that the Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked the party veteran and Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy to negotiate terms with KCR.
However, during the back channel talks, KCR is believed to have insisted that he or his nominee must be made the Chief Minister of the new Telangana state, a demand not acceptable to the Congress.
Besides, he has also put several demands on the table including good positions and posts for his son K T Rama Rao, daughter K Kavitha and other senior TRS leaders after the merger.
The talks are now in a deadlock as the Congress leadership finds KCR's demands very unreasonable and impractical.
In the meantime, the TRS has been making public announcements that it has enough strength to fight elections on its own and capture power in the next elections in Telangana state.
