Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and former Union minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said TRS has decided to withdraw from the United Progressive Alliance formally on September 23.

He also asserted that the forthcoming Lok Sabha byelection in Karimnagar would be a "referendum" on separate Telangana state issue.

In an informal chat with mediapersons on Saturday evening, KCR said that he would call on President A P J Abdul Kalam during his visit to Delhi on September 23 and hand over a letter withdrawing the support of his five-member TRS to the UPA government.

He said that he would leave for Delhi on the night of September 22 and meet Lok Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to press for the acceptance of his resignation from the parliamentary seat. He had already sent his resignation letter to the speaker, but would be meeting the latter in person in Delhi as per the convention.

Replying to queries, he said that he had no intention to call on UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images]. "I have no work with her. Where is the need for me to meet her?" he shot back.

It may be recalled that KCR and A Narendra had quit the Union Cabinet on August 22 in protest against the failure of the UPA to give a firm time-table for the formation of separate Telangana.

KCR announced his resignation from the Lok Sabha on September 12, after senior Congress leader and AP Minister for Sports and Culture M Satyanarayana Rao had challenged him to quit Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat and seek re-election. The minister had offered to quit the state Cabinet and Assembly seat and contest against KCR.

Asked if he would ask the Bharatiya Janata Party to extend support to him in the Karimnagar by-election, KCR said, "There is no need for me to do so. You better ask them."

He also asserted that the movement for separate Telangana would be carried on peacefully and refuted apprehensions that it might take a violent turn. 

"We will also make a clean sweep of all the seats in Telangana in the next Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2009," he said. To a query whether he would be able to sustain the movement for two and a half years, he quipped, "The Telangana movement has sustained itself over the last five decades."

He also indicated that he would network with the leaders of those regions where the demands for separate statehood have been raised, such as Bundelkhand and Vidarbha etc. "In Parliament, the numbers count and we will work towards building a coalition of parties seeking statehood for their regions in different states," he said and added, "Telangana has become a national issue now."

He explained that his priority now was to reorganise the party and strengthen for a long-drawn movement for separate Telangana state. After the first district-level public meeting being organised at Warangal on September 25, the party would hold similar district-level meetings in other Telangana districts.

He also announced plans to form a 500-strong Telangana brigade. It would comprise 500 members. One member each would be chosen from the 450 mandals and 50 municipalities in the 10 Telangana districts.

Thereafter, the party would also launch a 15-day palle bata (a path to village) campaign to strengthen the Telangana movement in all the 13,000 villages in the region.

Party sources expected the Karimnagar bypoll to be held sometime within a month and a half or two months.

KCR has already deputed some TRS legislators to make an assessment of the situation in the constituency in the event of a byelection and the relative prospects of various parties, including Congress, TDP and BJP vis-�-vis the TRS.