The Congress’ central leadership chose to ignore the dharna being staged by five MPs from Telangana on the premises of Parliament house, while the Opposition parties expressed solidarity with their cause.
At least 50 MPs of various parties expressed support for the dharna for the second consecutive day by Ponnam Prabhakar, G. Vivekanand, S. Rajaiah, Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Manda Jagannath. Notable among them were BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, Nationalist Congress Party Whip Ganesh Naik and BSP leader Tripathi.
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Although some Congress leaders met the protesting MPs, no effort was made as such by the central leadership to persuade them to call off the agitation.
Steel plant
Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma and S. Jaipal Reddy spent some time with the MPs. Mr. Verma reportedly assured the MPs that he would hold a meeting with his Ministry officials to study the feasibility of setting up a steel plant at Bayyaram.
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The MPs are sore that two other Union Ministers from Telangana, Sarvey Satyanaryana and Balram Naik, did not bother to call on them. State Ministers K. Jana Reddy and D. Sridhar Babu accompanied by MLAs Bhikshmaiah Goud, Government Whip Arepalli Mohan and Praveen Reddy met the MPs. TDP MP Gundu Sudha Rani also sat for sometime with them.
Peddapalli MP G. Vivekanand told The Hindu that unless all the Ministers and Congress MLAs from Telangana joined their protest, the high command would not relent. Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar said the Centre could have convened an all party meeting to take a decision on the issue.
T-JAC yatra concludes
Meanwhile, the two day ‘Sansad yatra’ by T-JAC concluded on Tuesday with the chairman Kodandaram claiming it to be a success. “We are able to bring the Telangana statehood issue to the notice at the national level,” he said and added that leaders from several parties, including BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, visited Jantar Mantar to extend their support.