Congress MP from Peddapalli G. Vivekanand has said that they cannot set any deadline to All-India Congress Committee (AICC) vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the statehood issue.
Talking to reporters on Friday, Dr. Vivekanand said all the MPs from Telangana stood as one in reiterating their demand that Centre should take an early decision on the statehood issue.
He said not withstanding the strong advice by the AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad not to raise the issue before Mr. Gandhi, they presented their case strongly.
Confident
Asked if they had set any deadline, Dr. Vivekanand said as MPs they could not do so. He expressed the confidence that the Centre would positively respond to their concerns.
The first time MP was non-committal when asked whether his colleagues from the region had made up their mind to switch sides as the Centre had not bothered to respond to their repeated pleas on Telangana.
Non-committal
“Who said Congress MPs are quitting the party. It is all media creation,” he said.
He was also non-committal when reminded about his threat that the MPs would not hesitate to take a harsh decision if the Centre failed to announce its decision on Telangana by the end of the monsoon session of Parliament.
Sources said the Congress MPs from the region were not too pleased with the high command’s response to their persistent demand on Telangana. These MPs appeared to be at crossroads unable to chalk out their future course of action. All that these MPs are now hoping is a separate meeting the AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi plans to convene shortly.
They hope that Mr. Gandhi will understand the strong sentiment prevailing in the region and convince the central leadership to expedite its decision.
