Hyderabad, September 29: TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao added a new twist to the Telangana tale by indicating that his party would be open to a bifurcation of the state with the inclusion of Kurnool and Anantapur districts in Telangana. He signalled his openness to such an idea in order to secure the support of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
The TRS chieftain said the T Pus Two proposal was disclosed to him by MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi when the two met Tuesday.The MIM has previously placed on record its three options on the Telangana question, with the first being a united state, second being Telangana with Hyderabad as capital and third Telangana plus Rayalaseema as one state (Rayala Telangana).
Rao said: “Asaduddin Owaisi’s party is only opposed to any move to make Hyderabad a union territory in case of a bifurcation of the state. It is in favour of a merger of Kurnool and Anantapur with Telangana because a large number of Muslims live in the two districts.’’
Indicating that the TRS would be open to the MIM’s third option, KCR said, “There may not be any opposition to the proposal of Rayala Telangana from the people of Telangana. But the proposal needs to be discussed.” The TRS is anticipating that the Congress-led UPA government is not in a mood at the moment to grant statehood to Telangana. Therefore it has decided to intensify the movement after the Dasara-Deepavali season. Sources said the purpose of these plans is to bring home to the Centre that there is no going back on T.
According TRS sources, the Centre has already taken decision on the Telangana issue but is only looking for ways to contain the fallout of such an announcement.
TRS leaders point out that a few days ago a CPI delegation met Senior Congress leaders including defence minister A K Antony but did not get a satisfactory assurance on Telangana. Antony reportedly told them that the Centre was facing several serious problems in implementing the Dec. 9, 2009 promise of Home minister P Chidambaram.
-PTI