Hyderabad, January 04: Congress MLA N Uttam Kumar Reddy and MP K Sambasiva Rao would represent the party at the meeting of eight political parties convened by the Centre on January 6 to discuss the Srikrishna Committee report.
State Congress President D Srinivas told reporters that Reddy and Rao would attend the meeting in Delhi.
While Reddy is a legislator from Telangana, Sambasiva Rao is a senior MP from the coastal Andhra region. The two leaders met Srinivas earlier.
Reddy and Rao had represented the ruling party at a similar meeting convened by the Centre in January last year.
Srinivas felt the meeting, convened by the Union Home Ministry, is mainly to share the committee’s report with the parties and not to seek their views.
The report is a 600-page document and the parties cannot express their views on it immediately, he said, adding if any party decides to stay away, it is their wish.
The five-member panel, which examined, among other things, the demand for Telangana statehood, submitted its report to the Centre last week. The meeting has been called before making the report public.
However, in a setback to the Centre’s consultation process, TRS and BJP yesterday decided not to attend the meeting, saying it was a “deliberate attempt” to seek divergent opinions on the statehood issue.
Reddy also said the meeting is mainly to share the report with the parties. “My information is that Telangana issue may not be discussed at the meeting. The report will be given to the political parties. It is a 600-page report. A response cannot be given immediately.”
–Agencies