TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday asserted that nothing short of separate Telangana, with Hyderabad as its capital, would be acceptable to his party.
“Some people ask what about Hyderabad? What is there about Hyderabad? This city was built with the taxes paid by our elders during Nizam rule,” he said, addressing a gathering here after a group of CPI(M) workers joined the TRS.
“I demand that Centre give us Telangana as it existed prior to the formation of Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
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Talking about the alleged injustice done to Telangana in united Andhra Pradesh, he claimed that leaders from the region were not allowed to continue as chief minister for the full term.
“Someone said why cannot Chandrasekhar Rao become Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh? Will they allow us to continue in office for full five years? What happened to P.V. Narasimha Rao, M. Channa Reddy and T Anjaiah. Were they allowed to continue for five years? I said Telangana cannot improve if the state remained united,” Mr. Rao said.
Hyderabad would emerge as a city of international standards after separate Telangana was formed, he said.
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Training guns on CPI(M), which is opposed to separate Telangana, Mr. Rao said that the Left party drew its cadres heavily from Nalgonda and other districts in Telangana.
“CPI(M) has just one MLA now. He is elected from Nalgonda district. It is Nalgonda district that held CPI(M)’s flag high. But, have they ever given the state secretary post to any Telangana leader?”
CPI(M) has only cared for problems of non-Telangana regions but not Telangana, Mr. Rao alleged.