Telangana Ministers have represented to the Group of Ministers (GoM) that any deviation from the Congress Working Committee’s resolution to form Telangana with ten districts will not be acceptable to the people in the region.
After Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha faxed the letter on their behalf, Ministers K. Jana Reddy, P. Sudarshan Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu and Sunitha Laxma Reddy said that reports about the Centre’s plan to create Rayala-Telangana had created confusion and shocked the Telangana people. “No one consulted us on Rayala-Telangana and we will not support it,” he said.
Mr. Raja Narasimha said the decision would be disadvantageous for the Congress in the general elections in Telangana region. The letter urged the GoM to stick to the CWC’s resolution for formation of 10-district Telangana with Hyderabad as common capital for 10 years.
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Separately, Union Ministers and MPs from Telangana took up the issue with Mr. Jaipal Reddy who, in turn, spoke to Union Home Minister S. K. Shinde to convey opposition to Rayala-Telangana.
Mr. Jana Reddy told reporters that Congress leaders had organised meetings in various districts to thank UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Centre for granting Telangana in line with people’s aspirations. This was also mentioned in the letter, he added.
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He said the culture, traditions, aspirations of people in Rayalaseema and Telangana were different and earlier leaders of Anantapur and Kurnool also opposed merger proposal. He said no delay should occur at this stage in introducing the Bill in Parliament.
Not supporting bandhOn Thursday’s bandh called by the TRS, he said though they were not backing it, they empathised with the feelings of people.
He asserted that while several people, organisations and parties had been striving for Telangana for the last 57 years, the Congress party’s role was pivotal and much more than that of the TRS.