Hyderabad stalls Telangana talk in Congress

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It is back to square one on Telangana statehood demand.

AICC general secretary in-charge of AP affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday told the Congress MPs from the Telangana region that the status of Hyderabad city has been the major stumbling block for the party to take a decision on the statehood demand.

Mr Azad pointed out to the MPs during his meeting in New Delhi that in the event of bifurcation of AP, the status of Hyderabad continues to be a contentious issue with the people of Seem-andhra region also claiming their right over it.

Mr Azad said that the options before the Centre are to declare the city as the joint capital of Tela-ngana and Seemandhra states or accord it the status of a Union Territory.

He said that Chandigarh, the common capital of Punjab and Haryana, can be taken as a model and this can be a solution in AP too.

However, the MPs vehemently rejected the suggestion, saying that nothing short of Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital is acceptable.

“What we want is “de-merger” of AP, not bifurcation. We want the Cen-tre to form a Telangana state, one that was in existence a day before the formation of AP,” they said. They pointed out that when AP was formed out of the Comp-osite State of Madras, the then capital Madras rem-ained with Tamil Nadu.

Mr Azad assured that the Centre will announce its decision after fresh consultations.

The MPs also cautioned him that unless Telanga-na is announced, it would be difficult for the party to survive in the region.