Hyderabad, June 30: Senior Congress and TRS leaders held a marathon five-hour meeting at the residence of Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy here on Wednesday night to assess the current situation in the wake of deployment of large-scale security forces in Telangana hotspots.
Though the leaders maintained that they discussed ways to build pressure on the Central government for conceding the statehood demand, Congress sources said they deliberated on the possible fallout of the deployment of security forces and the likely course the Telangana struggle would take from now on.
The Congress leaders refused to quit their posts immediately as demanded by TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and told him that they would take a call only after discussing the issue with their top leadership.
“We will discuss the issue with our top leaders again and take the next step,” Minister Jana Reddy and Rajya Sabha member K Keshav Rao told reporters.
The meeting started between Jana Reddy and KCR, along with TRS MLAs E Rajender and T Harish Rao, but later Congress MPs G Vivekananda and Gutta Sukhender Reddy too joined. Keshav Rao too came at a later stage.
“KCR (Chandrasekhar Rao) wanted the Congress Ministers, MPs, MLCs and MLAs from the region to resign from their posts immediately as the deadline set by the so-called Joint Action Committee ended on June 25. But the Congress leaders said they gave time till July 1 for the party high command to take a decision on the statehood issue,” a leader present at the meeting said.
Chandrasekhar Rao said they would meet once again in the next three-four days and take a decision on the future course of action.
The Congress and the TRS were, however, unanimous in their opinion that “there is no alternative to Telangana.”
–PTI