For Congress, it’s Food first and Telangana later

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Hyderabad: The Congress leadership has decided to go slow and steady in its appr-oach towards the formation of Telangana, while dealing cautiously with Seemandhra leaders who are upset with its decision to carve out Telangana.
 
Hyderabad may lose out on students
 
According to AICC sources, the leadership is fully engaged in scripting a strategy to get the Food Security Bill passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. “The Telangana Bill may take time. We will take it up once our priority item, the Food Security Bill, is passed in Parliament,” a key source said.
 
Sources said, some more consultations are needed on the issue of creating Telangana, like the status of Hyderabad and inclusion of Kurnool and Anantapur districts in the proposed Rayala Telangana state.
 
“We will have to clear these issues before giving the final nod for preparation of the Telangana Bill. As the procedure is lengthy, it may take three to four months before the Bill is introduced in Parliament,” the source said.
 
Senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad continued his 'telecon' with Seemandhra leaders on Saturday.
 
Divide and rule hits Seemandhra leaders
 
Hyderabad: The disunity among Seemandhra Congress leaders, who are demanding United AP and questioning the divide-and-rule approach of the Congress high command on the issue, also slowed down their political activity.
 
The United AP leaders are split into three groups - Union ministers, MPs and state ministers. It is said that the Congress leaders started this divide-and-rule approach quite some time ago. Due to their position and the power and respect attached to their posts, the Union ministers are not prepared to join the state ministers in their resignation threat.
 
On Saturday, when Union ministers Pallam Raju, K. Sambaiva Rao, K. Chiranjeevi and Daggubati Purandeswari met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conveyed their feelings against Telangana stategood, Dr Singh told them to abide by the party’s decision and advised them to meet party president Sonia Gandhi to convey their feelings.
 
Having failed to get an appointment with Gandhi, the ministers left Delhi for home in the evening. When the same ministers met a leader who is confidant of Gandhi on Friday night, they got the reply: “It is too late now and all should cooperate with the party’s decision.”
 
The party MPs from Seemandhra are still unable to script their strategy on how to stall the Telangana formation. The state ministers who have threatened to resign their posts, returned to the state without meeting the central leaders.
 
From his side, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha on Saturday individually called all the Seemandhra ministers and sought their cooperation for carving out Telangana state. 
 
He reminded them that since every Congress leader issued a statement saying they will abide by the decision of the high command, it is now their duty to respect the decision. He also appealed to them not to take extreme steps such as resigning from their posts.