The Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Thursday said it would launch a joint agitation by involving all those who quit their posts in support of the separate State demand in the past few days.
As a result, the rail roko stir in the region, which was to start on Friday, has been postponed.
The JAC would organise a meeting with all public representatives, who have resigned from their posts, in the next couple of days and decide the future course of agitation, its convener M. Kodandaram told reporters in Hyderabad.
He said the JAC leaders have spoken to some Congress MPs and also the opposition Telugu Desam Party leaders who have responded positively to the idea. “They all said they will discuss the matter internally and tell us. The general feeling is that joint stir should be undertaken.”
Accordingly, the rail roko, proposed to be held on July 8 and 9, and also the collective cooking programme on July 10 have been postponed, he said.
The JAC currently comprises the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Bharatiya Janata Party and a number of people’s organisations.
Disagreeing with the view that the en masse resignation of MPs, MLAs and MLCs failed to yield the desired result of paving way for formation of Telangana State, Mr. Kodandaram said the Centre has come under pressure to act fast now.
Over 100 MLAs, of the total 119 MLAs from Telangana, and 15 MPs cutting across party lines have quit their posts in support of the Telangana demand this week.
Following the en masse resignation of the legislators, top Congress leaders like Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel have held talks with the a delegation of party leaders from Telangana in Delhi.
Mr. Azad and also Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that consultations would be held to find a solution to the decades-old issue.
Mr. Kodandaram said the JAC aimed at consolidating the statehood stir and to carry forward it with full steam.
“We are quite happy with the progress. But we feel that the final outcome depends upon the kind of movement that we can build here. Political process has started, but the movement should move forward.
“The process would help us in intensifying the agitation. So both these dimensions of the ongoing Telangana movement have received fillip. Now, we would like to sustain them, combine them and carry forward the movement,” he said.
Asked whether the Congress and the TDP would be invited back into the JAC fold, he said the issue would be discussed at the proposed meeting of all those who quit their posts.
