Congress leaders from Telangana have taken objection to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy seeking postponement of the all-party meeting on the statehood issue on December 28 and described it as an attempt to derail the process being initiated by the Centre.
Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy had met Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and the AICC general secretary, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and others on Saturday with an appeal to defer the all-party meeting to a later date, saying it was clashing with the World Telugu Conference.
Objecting the move, angry Congress MPs from Telangana have decided to take up the issue with the Union Home Minister and other Central party leaders. They charged that Chief Minister was trying to scuttle the proposed meeting in the name of the World Telugu Conference.
‘No way against WTC’
“The all party meeting is in no way against the WTC. The Chief Minister’s request is sending a wrong signal after the Centre gave hope and confidence to the people of the region,” Madhu Yaskhi Goud, Congress MP from Nizamabad, told The Hindu on Sunday. “The Chief Minister and some other Congress leaders are not sincere. Their stand is strengthening the other opposition parties, particularly the YSR Congress,” he remarked.
Another MP, G. Vivekananda, charged the Chief Minister with behaving like a representative of Andhra region.
“The Congress party would nominate its representative for the meeting. The Chief Minister need not attend the meeting as the party will decide on the nominee. We will meet the Union Home Minister and insist that only one representative should attend the meeting. There is no need to put off the meeting.”
Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao faulted the Chief Minister for seeking postponement.
“It is irrational to seek postponement on the ground of holding WTC,” he said. Union Minister for Surface Transport Sarvey Satyanaryana also echoed similar sentiments. “How can the WTC dates clash with the all-party meeting? Once the Centre decides on a meeting, there is no going back on that,” he said.
