Congress president Sonia Gandhi is said to have assured a delegation of Union Ministers from the Seemandhra region that the committee, to be appointed by the party, would take care of the grievances of the people of Seemandhra and those in Hyderabad before the process of Telangana State formation continued further.
The committee, headed by party’s trouble-shooter and Defence Minister A.K. Antony, will have, among others, senior Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, M. Veerappa Moily and Ms. Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.
The Seemandhra Ministers, except Kishore Chandra Deo and K. Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, who highlighted the “sense of deprivation” prevailing in Seemandhra, also handed over to her the letter written by A.P. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana and 90 MLAs, including 20 Ministers from the Seemandhra region. Among other things, the State leaders wanted the Congress high command to keep A.P. united and reverse the Congress Working Committee’s decision.
A senior MP of Seemandhra said since the region’s Congress leaders were satisfied with Ms. Gandhi’s assurance on keeping the process of Telangana formation on hold till the Antony committee gave its report, the party MPs from Seemandhra would not disrupt Parliament proceedings from Wednesday. Union Ministers K.S. Rao, M.M. Pallam Raju, K. Chiranjeevi, J.D. Seelam, Panabaka Lakshmi, D. Purandeswari and Killi Kruparani Killi expressed their views before Ms. Gandhi.
Some of the Ministers said if the high command still wanted to go ahead with Telangana formation then Hyderabad should be made the permanent joint capital for Seemandhra and Telangana States by giving it a Union Territory status and law and order brought directly under the control of the Union Home Ministry.
‘Create Greater Rayalaseema’
Hyderabad Special Correspondent adds: But earlier in the day when Mr. Suryaprakash Reddy led a delegation of Congress elected representatives from Kurnool district to meet Ms. Gandhi, she is stated to have told them that the party could not go back on its decision on bifurcation. On its part, the delegation demanded that the State should be kept united. If the high command decided to go ahead with division, they suggested that Nellore and Prakasam districts be merged into Rayalaseema districts to create a Greater Rayalaseema State.
