Congress has ended up dividing A.P. people, says Venkaiah

Having taken the lead in the campaign for a separate Telangana, the BJP is now engaged in a balancing act, stressing the need for justice for the people of Seemandhra and Rayalaseema.

The former party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, told a news conference here that owing to its shortsightedness, the Congress ended up dividing the people of Andhra Pradesh without an “inch of progress” on creation of Telangana.

Reiterating his party’s unequivocal support for Telangana, Mr. Naidu emphasised that the immediate task before the government was to reach out to the people opposed to bifurcation.

Asked if the BJP was in favour of a special session of Parliament to pass a Bill on creation of Telangana, Mr. Naidu said first normality must be restored in the State. “We have no such proposal. The government should get its act together. The Congress should put its house in order.”

He said that it was ridiculous on the part of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh to charge the Opposition with playing opportunist politics when the Congress in Andhra Pradesh was vertically divided.

“Your own Chief Minister is openly campaigning against creation of Telangana. Central Ministers from Seemandhra have resigned and Congress MPs from the region have quit. And you have the audacity to accuse the Opposition of playing politics,” Mr. Naidu said.