Hyderabad, January 20: Senior Telangana TDP leader and MLA Nagam Janardhan Reddy today said that they (Telangana TDP leaders and workers) would think of working with the Telangana JAC only if they are convinced that it has changed its path and will work solely for Telangana cause. The JAC should function above party lines and should not confine itself to strengthening one or two parties (referring to TRS), he remarked.
Speaking to newsmen at the Assembly media point here, Janardhan Reddy said the Telangana TDP leaders would decide their action programme on the T issue only after party president Chandrababu Naidu holds talks on the issue with all the concerned. Telangana statehood could be achieved only if all the Telangana leaders come together. “Telangana leaders should learn from Seemandhra leaders to maintain unity,” he observed.
Referring to the sixth option of the Srikrishna committee report, he said a constitutional amendment was needed to create a separate council for the Telangana region which the Centre could not do without the support of the BJP. “Constitutional architect BR Ambedkar had already made it clear that the Government could bifurcate the state as per the Gentlemen’s Agreement by securing one vote majority,” he said.
He demanded that the ministers, MPs, MLAs and other public representatives of the ruling Congress party should strive to bring pressure on the Centre for introduction of a Bill on Telangana in the next Parliament session.
Nagam brushed aside electronic media reports that he was going to keep a low profile and had given a deadline for creation of a separate unit for Telangana TDP.
“Chandrababu Naidu and I are not different. We are one in the party. We (Telangana TDP leaders) have expressed our views on Telangana to our leader. A separate unit is only a proposal to get us some freedom and better coordination in activities. It won’t serve the T movement in anyway,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a chat with some Congress leaders, including MLA Anam Vivekananda Reddy and Telangana leader T Jeevan Reddy, on the Assembly premises, Nagam reportedly said he would leave for America if the T issue gets on his nerves and would ask the party cadre in his constituency to look for another leader. “The party (TDP) does not belong to one person and has grown with the contribution of several people. From the beginning, I have been with the party. Why should I leave now? Leaders cannot move in the region if Telangana state is not given,” he said.
–Agencies