The second biggest constituent of the United Progressive Alliance, Trinamool Congress, dealt a major blow to the UPA when it decided to withdraw its support on the issue of petroleum price hike, FDI in retail and corruption.

After Mamata Banrjee's withdrawal of support, the Congress top brass headed by party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went into a huddle today on the way forward and the options that lie ahead.

Tomorow, the Samajwadi Party, which is one of the UPA's lifelines at the moment, will hold coordinated agitation programmes across the country to protest against these decisions of the Manmohan Singh government, along with a number of other non-UPA parties including BJP,

Political analysts say that the crisis in the Manmohan Singh's government will continue for at least one more week. With the Trinamool Congress withdrawing its support, the UPA government seems to be tottering yet again.

Will the Telangana issue, which had suddenly gathered pace, now go back to the back burner? Or will Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh take time off from fire-fighting and turn the Telangana dream into a reality? The Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been camping in New Delhi for the past two weeks, and has been reportedly lobbying with the Congress leadership to make an announcement on Telangana at the earliest.

When the UPA government itself is in a survival mode, will Sonia Gandhi have the time for Telangana? That's a billion-dollar question at the moment.

-Siva@sakshipost