The Telangana Sadhana Sabha, organised by Congress leaders from Telangana on Sunday at Nizam College Grounds, passed a resolution requesting the party’s Central leadership to announce a separate Telangana state without any delay. The resolution was proposed by IT minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah in a well-attended public meeting.
Former Pradesh Congress Committee president and MLC D. Srinivas and former minister and MLC Shabbir Ali, who have close contacts with the party’s leadership, said in their speeches that the high command will announce a separate Telangana state shortly.
Deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, Union ministers Sarve Satyanarayana, Balaram Naik, and senior minister K. Jana Reddy also expressed the same opinion.
Mr Jana Reddy, who presided over the meeting, said, “Everyone is talking about our posts and sacrifices. Some leaders are asking that after this meeting, if the high command won’t react positively, what will you do? We will go to the high command and tell AICC president Sonia Gandhi that we don’t want the posts. And we won’t ask for party tickets in the next elections, give tickets to whoever you want. We won’t leave the party. We will be in the party and fight for Telangana state. We are ready to sacrifice anything.”
All the Telangana state ministers, except Mr Danam Nagendar, Mr M. Mukesh and Mr R. Venkat Reddy, attended the meeting. Mr Srinivas said that the people know that Telangana would not be possible through other parties; it is only possible through the Congress. “Telugu people are going to have two states very soon. In the next two years, the two states will become number one and two in the country in development,” he declared. Mr Srinivas said that Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana.