By IANS
Hyderabad : Senior Congress leader and former union minister G. Venkatswamy Tuesday demanded that a bill for granting separate statehood to Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh be tabled in the coming session of parliament.
Venkatswamy, who is heading a group of Congress leaders from the region, told reporters that the bill should be tabled in the budget session beginning next month so that the separate state could be created before the elections next year.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already declared that it will support such a bill in parliament.
Venkatswamy, who is also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), said he would meet party president Sonia Gandhi in the first week of February in New Delhi to demand that the party make its stand on the issue clear.
Claiming that there was a strong public sentiment in favour of a separate Telangana state, he said if the party accepted the statehood demand, he was ready to take the responsibility of winning all the Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the region for the party.
“I will retire from politics after the formation of separate state,” said the senior leader while making it clear that he would not accept the post of governor or any other post offered by the party’s central leadership.
The party MP had Monday warned the central leadership that if the Telangana sentiments were not respected, the party could be wiped out in the region in 2009 elections.
The group led by Venkatswamy was to meet Gandhi on Jan 28 but the meeting was postponed, as she was unwell.
The group will also bring to her notice the controversial statement allegedly made by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, opposing a separate Telangana before 2009 elections.
It will also draw her attention towards the statements made by some party leaders from the Andhra and Rayalseema regions, opposing the demand of a separate state and criticising the leaders from the Telangana region.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has already set a March 6 deadline for the Congress-led central government to initiate the process of formation of a separate state. The party has announced that if no steps were taken in this regard, all its MPs and legislators would resign.
The demand for separate statehood to Telangana, comprising 10 districts including Hyderabad, dates from the 1960s.