The movement for separate Telangana state is set to face a litmus test in the coming by-election to Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency.

The outcome will decide the political future of K Chandrasekhar Rao, the founder President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Being viewed as a referendum on the statehood demand, the December 4 by-poll has thrown up a unique situation never witnessed in the past where all the contenders unanimously acknowledge an undercurrent of Telangana sentiment in the region.

By pulling out of the UPA government and seeking a reelection from this nerve centre of the Telangana agitation, Rao has raised the stakes so high that the by-poll has become a do-or-die battle for his party.

Summing up the mood in the constituency, S Ajit Singh, an advocate and a fifth generation Sikh migrant from Punjab, said, "Individuals are immaterial here. It will be a vote for or against statehood for Telangana."

The backward constituency, going to polls two-and-half years after registering a verdict in favour of the statehood cause, is witnessing a four-cornered contest this time around.

In 2004, the Congress and the TRS were together and the Telugu Desam Party supported the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The allies on both sides of the political spectrum have since parted ways. While the TRS and the BJP are unequivocal in campaigning for creation of Telangana, the TDP is opposed to the bifurcation of the state even while acknowledging the existence of the Telangana sentiment.

The state's ruling Congress has adopted ambivalent approach on the issue, arguing that there is no political consensus on Telangana and that the final decision has been left to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi [Images]. It is, however, promising the voters that efforts to achieve consensus on statehood would continue.

The by-poll to this backward constituency was necessitated due to resignation of Rao in the midst of growing friction with the Congress. His gambit of seeking a fresh mandate on a single point agenda of statehood came at a time when the morale of the party was dipping in the wake of TRS' poor performance in local bodies polls.

Refuting the charge that he had forced an election on the people for no valid reason, Rao told a visiting PTI correspondent that the Congress had precipitated the matters by failing to deliver on the promise made in the Common Minimum Programme on formation of Telangana state.

"The Congress has betrayed the people of Telangana and will face their wrath at the hustings," alleged Rao, who had won the seat in 2004 with Congress support.

"The fight for Telangana has entered a decisive phase.

Time is ripe to achieve the goal of a separate state. This election outcome will take the Telangana voice to Delhi's [Images] corridors of power," he said.

While TRS has made it clear that the by-poll was a referendum on Telangana, Congress is approaching the voters with development plank even while taking care to position itself as being favourable to the formation of a separate state.