More consultations likely on Telanagana
Torn between two groups within the party over the controversial issue of a separate state of Telangana, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said there would be further consultations on the subject.
Interacting with reporters at Rashtrapati Bhavan Dr Singh said, “I think home minister had a meeting with leaders of political parties from Andhra Pradesh. They had gone back and will study the report of the Srikrishna Committee. There will be further consultations.”
This is the first reaction of the PM on the issue since the submission of the Srikrishna Committee’s recommendations. Since then, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, political secretary to Ms Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, defence minister A.K. Antony and law minister Veerappa Moily have held one round of discussion with Congress MPs who hail from Telangana. They were asked by the leaders to cooperate with the party and not precipitate a crisis by tendering their resignation over the emotive issue. In response, the parliamentarians from Telangana had promised to help the party but with a rider that the party will have to eventually agree to the creation of a separate state.
The MPs had earlier threatened to put in their papers if the bill for the creation of a separate Telangana state is not tabled in parliament in the forth-coming budget session.
Meanwhile the MPs from Seema Andhra have also called on the party not to give into the demands for a separate state.
The party is torn between its own MPs who stand divided on regional lines. According to sources, the top brass of the Congress are of the view that granting statehood to Telangana will only help K. Chandrasekar Rao (KCR) of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the region and that will affect the party’s prospects in the remaining two regions.
And also creation of Telangana will open a pandora’s box with demands from various quarters becoming more strident.
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