By IANS,
Hyderabad : Following a direction from the Congress party central leadership, Andhra Pradesh lawmakers belonging to the ruling party from Telangana Tuesday cancelled their visit to Delhi for lobbying for statehood to the region.
The Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly from Telangana dropped their plans after senior Congress legislators K. Jana Reddy and R. Damodar Reddy returned here Tuesday after cutting short their Delhi visit.
The leaders said they dropped the plans as the central leadership had assured them they would soon take a decision in favour of Telangana.
In Delhi, Congress general secretary in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh M. Veerappa Moily asked Telangana MPs and legislators not to rush to Delhi as this would further complicate the issue.
Moily told reporters that party leaders from any region of the state should not come to Delhi in delegations, saying this would have a “cascading” effect and delay a decision on Telangana.
“Our request to leaders of all the regions is to preserve the peace and normalcy established after the Jan 5 meeting and allow us to take a decision,” Moily said.
He also asked party legislators to withdraw their resignations saying this would not help solve the problem. “What will they achieve through resignations? At the most the assembly will be dissolved but this will further delay a decision on Telangana. Even if a bill for formation of Telangana state is introduced in parliament, it has to be sent to the assembly for consultation,” he said.
Telangana leaders will be holding a meeting later in the day to decide their course of action in view of the direction from the central leadership.
As many as 28 out of 50 legislators of the Congress party from Telangana had last month submitted their resignations along with legislators from other parties to the assembly speaker, demanding immediate steps for formation of Telangana state.
The all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC), which also includes Congress, has set Jan 28 as the deadline for the centre to make a clear announcement on Telangana, failing which all MPs and legislators will resign and press for acceptance of the resignations.
The Congress legislators and MPs had on Monday decided to visit Delhi to bring pressure on the party leadership and the government.