By IANS,
Hyderabad : The first meeting of the main opposition Telugu Desam Party’s core committee on the demand for separate statehood to Telangana will be held Wednesday in the backdrop of bickering over the issue.
The meeting is being held in Devulapally village in Vizianagaram district in north coastal Andhra after the party leadership shifted the venue from Hyderabad to avoid media focus. The move is also seen as a snub to the leaders demanding a decision in favour of a separate state.
A day before the meeting, party president N. Chandrababu Naidu also made it clear that no decision would be taken in the first meeting of the five member committee. This is likely to disappoint senior leaders like T. Devender Goud, who have been trying to mount pressure on the leadership to take an early decision.
Stating that he was not anti-Telangana, the former chief minister said given the nature of the problem it was not possible to take a decision in one sitting. He told newsmen in Vizianagaram district that the first meeting would decide the modalities for a thorough debate on the issue.
Naidu, who is currently in the district as part of his state-wide ‘yatra’ or
tour, will attend the meeting, which assumed significance in view of the
recent utterances of Goud and two other senior leaders seeking an early and
clear stand on the issue and their criticism by a section of leaders
opposing bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Worried over the turmoil in the party, Naidu once again appealed to all
party leaders not to make public their views on the sensitive issue.
Defying Naidu’s earlier directives, Goud and two senior leader G. Sukhender
Reddy and C. Muthyam Reddy demanded that the party take a stand in favour of
separate Telangana state.
The party Monday served show cause notice on Sukhender Reddy, asking him to
explain, within a week, the charge that he had worked for the defeat of the
party candidate in recent by-elections in Alair assembly constituency.
Alair was one of the 18 assembly constituencies which went to polls in May
along with four Lok Sabha seats. TDP has done well in the by-polls by
wresting one Lok Sabha and four assembly seats from Telangana Rashtra Samiti
(TRS), which is spearheading the movement for a separate state.
While the defeat of TRS was interpreted as defeat of the Telangana sentiment
by a section of TDP leaders, others like Goud argued that the sentiment was
still strong and the party should take an early decision to avoid drubbing
in the next year’s polls.