The Telangana Regional Congress Coordination Committee (TRCCC) has opined that the party should not field its candidates in the forthcoming byelections to 12 Assembly constituencies that fell vacant after resignation of 10 MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and one each of the Telugu Desam Party and Bharatiya Janata Party.
Representatives of the TRCCC, who deliberated the issue at a meeting here on Sunday, felt that the public mood was sympathetic towards the legislators who had quit their posts in less than a year for a cause and Telangana sentiment continued to be intense across the region.
Credit to TRS
They were said to have felt that any move to field candidates against those who had resigned would ensure that the entire credit of the struggle for separate Telangana would go to the TRS.
TRCCC convenor G. Chinna Reddy told reporters later that the committee had conveyed its views to the party high command, but had decided to abide by the party leadership's decision on the issue.
Resolution adopted
He said the meeting adopted a resolution condemning TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao's comments against AP Congress Committee president D. Srinivas. “The remarks are uncalled for as Mr. Srinivas is committed to Telangana, but unable to submit his views to the Justice Srikrishna Committee as he is the president for three regions,” he said.
Report on May 13
The TRCCC would present a comprehensive report on the situation in Telangana to Srikrishna Committee on May 13 incorporating power point presentations by experts in various fields. The meeting, he said, deliberated on the need for all Congressmen in Telangana to present their views to the committee in ‘one voice' rather than presenting individual reports.
The TRCCC, he said, was constituted by the All India Congress Committee and was endorsed by party president Sonia Gandhi.
“We are hopeful that our report will be taken as the official version of the party as the TRCCC is an integral part of the State Congress,” he said.
‘Arguments untenable'
Though the Congress leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions were presenting their arguments before the Srikrishna Committee, they were untenable as there was a strong case to show how Telangana had been discriminated on various fronts and all the agreements violated in the last five decades.