By IANS
New Delhi : A day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who has been opposing creation of a separate Telangana state, briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the need for an integrated state, the party’s core group held a detailed discussion on the issue Tuesday.
Reddy, who also took part in the discussions held here with senior party leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, however, said the talks were not exclusively on Telangana.
“We discussed Andhra Pradesh affairs. Telangana was a part of the discussion. We discussed chronological events of Telangana and the problems faced by the region,” Reddy told reporters here.
“The Congress leadership believes that no region should be neglected,” he said.
Pointing out that Congress leader Venkatswamy had said that a second State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) – as suggested by some Congress leaders – should have been formed immediately after the party-led coalition came to power in 2004, Reddy said: “The Congress was trying to form consensus on the issue of creation of a separate state – (bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.) It is too late (to form the second SRC) now.”
Reddy, who has been opposed to forming a Telangana state, is said to have submitted to the party president a report on the development works his government had initiated in the backward region.
In his 45-minute meeting with Gandhi Monday, Reddy tried to establish that the creation of a separate state by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh would have an adverse impact on the region, Congress sources said.
The Congress has been changing its stance on Telangana as its leaders are sharply divided on the issue. While leaders like Reddy oppose the move, party leaders from Telangana favour it, and say any delay in creating a separate Telangana state would damage the party’s prospects in the upcoming assembly and general elections.
The Congress, which went to the 2004 polls in alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) – a party formed to push the four-decade Telangana movement – is facing serious trouble in the region over the issue.
People in Telangana say the region has over the years remained underdeveloped because the successive governments in Hyderabad and New Delhi have suppressed their rights and hopes. Of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, 17 are from Telangana.
Reddy, who arrived in New Delhi Monday, also met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads a Group of Ministers on Telangana.
Meanwhile, several party leaders from Telangana – many of whom have threatened to quit if the Congress-led government did not implement its promise on a new state – are also planning to meet Gandhi.