Hyderabad, December 21: Telangana Congress leaders, who met here today, appealed to their counterparts in Andhra and Rayalaseema reagions to call off their United Andhra Pradesh Movement and come to the negotiation table to have their grievances redressed since the Centre had already announced its decision on Telangana State.
The leaders, who constituted a steering committee with MLA from Warangal district Basavaraju Saraiah as its chairman to make it loud and clear to the people of Telangana that separate state was being formed because the Congress was committed to it but not because of the agitation taken up by the TRS.
Former minister R Damadar Reddy told reporters later that Congress leaders from Telangana were not averse to the Centre sanctioning a special package to address the concerns of the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema areas after the bifurcation of the State.
Congress MPs Committee convener Ponnam Prabhakar said all the Congress leaders from Telangana would obey the party’s decision on Telangana and ridiculed the Congress MP from Vijayawada L Rajagopal for his agitation which he said was only to gain popularity and become chief minister of coastal Andhra.
Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao allayed the fears of those who had migrated to Hyderabad from Andhra and said no harm would befall them. He said formation of a separate state would be a certainty.
Those who attended the meeting included eight MPs, 10 MLAs, eight MLCs, PCC leaders and leaders of various cells of the PCC.
—Agencies