After the Congress Core Group meeting on Friday Ghulam Nabi Azad called up MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi to seek his views on the Rayala-Telangana.
Asaduddin Owaisi said to have cautioned Azad against division of the state saying that it would strengthen the BJP in Telangana.He said I have already given the same feedback recently to Digvijaya Singh.
Owaisi’s is not the only voice of opposition to bifurcation of the state as most Congress leaders from the state and the Centre who have been consulted by the party high command have reservations on any such move. In fact, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who had been called to Delhi for consultation on Friday, was learnt to have told the leadership that it would be “suicidal” to create a Telangana state. State leaders were learnt to have argued that while a decision in favour of Telangana may not bear any great electoral dividends in the region constituting 17 Lok Sabha seats, it may have “serious consequences” for the party on 25 Lok Sabha seats falling in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions.
Maintaining that all consultations on Telangana are over and a final call would be taken by Sunday or Monday, sources said that while the Congress president has made up her mind on Telangana, feedback from party leaders is to the contrary.
Owaisi who had not showed his cards for long also rejected the suggestion of Hyderabad made a union territory.
“Hyderabad cannot be a union territory as there is no geographical contiguity like Punjab and Haryana have with Chandigarh,” he said.
There have been suggestions Hyderabad be made a union territory for 25 years if Telangana is carved out of Andhra Pradesh.