Hyderabad, March 14: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao has appealed to Seemandhra leaders belonging to the Congress and other political parties not to make provocative statements or false propaganda that Seemandhra people will be driven away from the region after formation of Telangana state.
Talking to reporters here today, Rao said lakhs of Telugu people were living in Chennai even after Andhra was separated from the then Madras state and the subsequent formation of Andhra Pradesh.
“About 80 percent people of Seemandhra are in favour of state’s bifurcation as they foresee more development of their region which is endowed with natural resources and seaports.
Only their leaders oppose bifurcation by advancing the argument that Naxalite activities will increase if Telangana became a state,’’ he said and recalled that no Seemandhra leader had objected to the Congress-TRS poll alliance in 2004 and to the inclusion of Telangana in the election manifesto.
Referring to the Million March, Rao said the damage to statues on the Tank Bund would not have taken place had the police allowed the Telangana political JAC to conduct their programme at the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad.
Noting that the Telangana movement was being conducted by people themselves now, he hoped the Congress high command would turn its attention to Telangana after the elections in five states.
Asked about YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s new political party, he quipped, “ It was proved on several occasions that those who had left the Congress were washed away in elections.’’ Meanwhile, P Sudhakar Reddy, MLC and AICC secretary, said only time would tell if Jagan would come back to the Congress.
–Agencies