Congress party’s central leadership is reportedly keen on clinching the contentious Telangana statehood issue either in its favour or against it at the next Core Committee meeting on July 12.
State Congress leaders now camping in New Delhi got indications on this score from the Central leadership on a day of hectic activity that saw AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh meeting AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, ostensibly to brief them about the opinion gathering exercise he had undertaken during the week.
Mr. Singh is believed to have told State leaders when they met him later that the AICC was inching closer to a decision and the next Core Committee meeting could be crucial. A senior State Congress leader said the high command was not in a mood to delay a decision. Mr. Singh’s briefing to top most leaders of AICC assumes significance as he had held wide-ranging consultations with State Congress leaders from all regions during his recent visit to Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. He is said to have explained to them the prevailing situation in the State, including the Telangana Congress leaders’ ‘Telangana Sadhana Sabha’ organised on June 30.
PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana and former Minister Md. Ali Shabbir met Mr. Singh. The PCC chief is stated to have told him that he was in Delhi to prepare a report elaborating on the roadmap in the event of the bifurcation or against it. Mr. Shabbir said he had submitted a report along with newspaper clippings and CD of the Congress meeting at Nizam College grounds. He reportedly told Mr. Singh that the Congress leaders from Telangana had pinned hopes on the high command about a positive decision on bifurcation. “If the central leadership disappoints us, we have no place in the region,” he reportedly told the senior leader.
In a related development, Mr. Satyanarayana called on Union Ministers -- S. Jaipal Reddy, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Panabaka Lakshmi and Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy -- and elicited their views on the party’s latest moves. Endowments Minister C. Ramachandraiah also called on Ms. Gandhi to present the viewpoint of Rayalaseema and Andhra.
