Hyderabad, June 11: In the backdrop of differences of opinion among the Congress leaders on what the party should promise voters during campaigning for the coming byelections to 12 Assembly seats in the Telangana region in July or August, senior State leaders are for leaving the matter to the party high command.
Talking to Express here today, Pradesh Congress Committee chief D Srinivas said the party had not yet decided on the slogan. He ruled out his going to Delhi to discuss the same until the election schedule was announced.
Meanwhile, senior Telangana Congress leader and CWC member K Keshav Rao asserted before newsmen that the State Congress would abide by the decision taken by the central leadership in respect of the bypoll plank.
As for the very fact of contesting, he said that though he himself was not in favour of it, on this matter too it would be best to follow the high command directive. The party’s contesting did not per se mean that the Congress was against separate Telangana, he maintained.
”People would benefit more from a Congress win. Even if the TRS triumphs, would it be able to deliever Statehood?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Government Whip S Sailajanath is backing Anantapur MP A Venkatarami Reddy’s call for slogans relating to “development and welfare schemes”. There was no need, he felt, to raise the Telangana issue since the Central Government had constituted the Srikrishna Committee to decide on the State’s future.
He urged the Telangana Congress leaders not to fall into the “trap” of TRS leaders.
–Agencies