Hyderabad, November 15: Telangana Congress MPs, who had submitted their resignations to the Lok Sabha speaker long ago, have decided to attend the winter session of Parliament which will commence on November 22 to build pressure on the party high command and the UPA government.
At a meeting held here on Sunday, they hoped that the Congress core committee would, in the next couple of days, recommend to the government to take a decision on Telangana. They plan to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi also.
They tentatively fixed December 9 as a fresh deadline to the Centre on the statehood issue. In case the Congress or UPA government decide to deny statehood to Telangana, then they will resign from the party and Parliament, and plunge headlong into the people’s movement. They also declared that they were prepared to face fresh elections. “We are with all Telangana forces and all the forces were with us,” the MPs claimed. Reiterating their commitment to the Telangana cause, they said they would not agree to any other proposal including changing the chief minister.
K Keshava Rao, Y Madhu Goud Yashki, S Rajaiah, Manda Jagannatham, Gutta Sukhender Reddy, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, G Vivekananda, Balaram Nayak attended the meeting which lasted three hours. They discussed, among other things, the present political situation, prime minister Manmohan Singh’s remark and the mood of the AICC leadership.
They had a lengthy discussion on seeking acceptance of their resignations and quitting the party but could not arrive at a final decision. But they decided to take a collective decision if they failed to influence the party high command on Telangana.
The MPs said the contradictory and conflicting statements made recently by the prime minister, home minister, AICC general secretary and AICC official spokesmen would damage the party’s prospects in the region.
Talking with reporters later, Keshava Rao said the prime minister’s statement was nothing new but it was untimely. “The government and the party, after several years of study and consultations, made the statement on December 9 in 2009. Now the people of Telangana are eagerly waiting implementation of its assurance. If the Centre goes back on its assurance and adopts a negative stance on Telangana, the Congress MPs from the region will have to take very harsh decisions including sacrificing all their positions and will join the people’s movement,” he said.
Echoing Rao’s opinion, Rajgopal Reddy termed their decision taken at Monday’s meeting as historic.
–Agencies