With the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance paving the way for formation of a separate Telangana State, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that the government bring in a Bill on the issue in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on August 5.
“There has been a demand for statehood to Telangana with Hyderabad as the capital and integral part of the State but the Congress has been dilly-dallying on the issue. We do not know what it is going to do. The Congress has betrayed the people of the region for the last 56 years,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar alleged here.
“We reiterate our demand for Telangana. We do not want the Congress to only make an announcement but want it to bring in a Bill,” he said, adding it would be passed by both Houses.
The BJP recalled that the Congress announced in Parliament on December 9, 2009 that the process of formation of Telangana had begun. “Three and a half years have passed since then but nothing has been done.” Mr. Javadekar said: “Our party has said, at the national level, that it is in favour of formation of Vidarbha [in Maharashtra] and Telangana. It was on our agenda in the 1999 elections. The Congress [also] promised Telangana in 2004 when it came to power.”
