Mixed reaction from non-Cong parties to Telangana
New Delhi: Even as Congress claimed credit for the decision to form Telangana state, other parties on Tuesday gave mixed reactions with BJP claiming it would have formed the state during NDA rule but for opposition from a key ally while the Left cautioned that this may spur more such demands.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, spearheading the agitation for the separate state since long, welcomed the Congress Working Committee decision to form a separate Telangana state.
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani said "as far as we are concerned, our party is concerned, if Telangana was not formed when we had formed three new states it was only because of our respecting one of our coalition partners. Otherwise we would have done it even then".
He was referring to the objection from TDP, which was supporting the NDA government, to the formation of Telangana.
CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said statehood for Telangana will spur such demands in other parts of the country.
"The central government will have to take the responsibility to see that there is no further division of states whether it is West Bengal or anywhere else," he said.
"It should be made clear that you cannot go on having an endless division of a state or creation of new states," Karat added.
D Raja (CPI), termed the decision as "too late" and said his party had agreed to a separate Telangana "after indepth discussion and considering and exhausting all options".
"All regions of Andhra Pradesh should take this decision in a brotherly manner without any hostility or bitterness," he said.
Raja hastened to add that as a matter of principle, the Left is not in favour of creating smaller states but Telangana is a big region and the agitation for a separate state had been going on there for long.
Shiv Sena reacted sharply to the decision. "We regret the decision to divide Andhra Pradesh. We are for a united Maharashtra (an apparent reference to demand for Vidarbha state) and there is no question of any decision," Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said.
Though Shiv Sena is the oldest ideological ally of BJP, the two differ on Telangana and Vidarbha. While BJP supports both, Shiv Sena is opposed to them.
Welcoming the decision on Telangana, LJP leader Ramvilas Paswan expressed the hope that the government will also create states like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Purvanchal. "LJP is in favour of smaller states," he said.
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