Hyderebad, January 02: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu has started consultations with the party leaders on the proposed meeting of the Centre on the Telangana issue on January 5.
Naidu interacted with Mahaboobnagar and Nalgonda district leaders and MLAs today and will meet leaders of all the 23 districts before Jan 4.
“Naidu is eliciting our opinions for the Jan 5 meeting,’’ TDP Politburo member N Janardhan Reddy said.
According to sources, Naidu indicated to the party leaders that the TDP was committed to its pro-Telangana stand. It was the Congress, which had to make its stand clear on the issue, Naidu reportedly said.
The party will decide whom to delegate to the January 5 meeting only on Jan 4. But sources said that it may send MV Mysoora Reddy or K Yerran Naidu and N Janardhan Reddy for the meeting.
According to sources, the issues such as increasing the SC and ST quota in the Assembly, if a separate State is carved out also figured in the meeting.
After the State gets divided, the percentage of SCs and STs in Telangana would increase and the Centre had to increase their quota in the Assembly seats accordingly.
However, another MLA from Mahaboobnagar said that the situation had reached a stage where the question of saying `yes or no’ to Telangana was not relevant any more. The Centre had already started the process for separate Telangana and as a prelude to it, it has invited political parties to know their views.
Later, NGOs, people’s organisations and experts on irrigation, power and other key sectors would be invited for talks, he felt.
Such an exercise was undertaken in other states before bifurcating them, he poined out.
–Agencies