Hyderabad, March 06: Describing the reconstituted Congress Working Committee as an ‘’old wine in a new bottle,’’ veteran Congress leader G Venkata Swamy, who was dropped from the CWC in yesterday’s revamp by the party’s central leadership, said today that the All India Congress Committee was treating all leaders demanding Telangana state and involved in the movement as ‘’untouchables.’’ He said that Andhra Pradesh was totally ignored in reconstituting the CWC.
Talking with reporters here, he said he was ‘’happy’’ with the party’s decision (of dropping him) but was pained at the removal of another senior leader K Keshava Rao from the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the party. ‘’The party high command might have felt that I would raise the Telangana issue again at the CWC meeting if I continued as its member, and decided to drop me.
Many times I was about to walk out of CWC meetings in protest against indecision on Telangana but some colleagues prevented me from doing so,” he claimed.
The veteran leader, who went hammer and togs at Congress president Sonia Gandhi in recent times, refused to talk about her now.
He, however, said that he would talk about her at an appropriate time.
–Agencies