By IANS
Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s reported comment, ruling out creation of a separate Telangana state, has triggered a storm in the ruling Congress and caused Telangana protagonists to mount a scathing attack on him.
Former union minister and senior leader G. Venkatswamy and others termed the chief minister’s remarks as “shocking” and alleged that he was creating hurdles in the creation of a separate state.
Venkatswamy, who heads a group of senior leaders favouring separate statehood to Telangana, said with these remarks the chief minister stood “exposed” before the people.
He demanded a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to discuss the issue of separate Telangana. He said he would write to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to bring to her notice the chief minister’s remarks.
YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known, denied he made any such comments during an interview to a Telugu daily. He said he only referred to the difficulties in creation of a separate state.
The newspaper quoted him as saying that it was not possible to create a separate Telangana by the 2009 elections and the party might consider the issue in 2014.
Congress parliamentarian from Nizamabad and central leader Madhu Yaskhi also took strong exception to the chief minister’s comments.
Yaskhi, secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), told newsmen here Tuesday that he with other leaders from Telangana would take up the matter with Sonia Gandhi during their meeting on Jan 28.
Yaskhi, who played a key role recently in forming a group of senior party leaders to step up efforts to achieve a separate state, said such comments were encouraging anti-Telangana ministers to make statements, belittling Telangana and its leaders.
He said the central leadership of the party was being misled on the issue.
“Some forces have hatched a conspiracy against Telangana. They are deliberately making such comments and misleading the party leadership,” Yaskhi said without naming anyone.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi would take the final decision on the issue, he said. “All leaders, including the chief minister, will have to abide by the decision,” he added.
“What is shocking to me is that the state leadership is working in a way to challenge the central leadership,” Yakshi said.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which is fighting for a separate Telangana, has launched a bitter attack on the chief minister.
TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao termed YSR as “traitor”, and said people would teach him and the Congress a lesson in next year’s election.
TRS activists took to the streets in various cities to protest the chief minister’s remarks. Its students’ wing took out a mock funeral procession of YSR on the campus of Osmania University here. The party activists also staged a demonstration in Nalgonda and blocked the convoy of state minister G. Chinna Reddy.
YSR’s comments came amid serious bickering within the ruling party over the issue. Despite the directive of the Congress central leadership to leaders not to make statements over the issue, those from Andhra and Telangana are involved in a bitter war of words.
Congress MP from Vijayawada L. Rajagopal and Minister M. Mareppa are targeting Yaskhi and others. Rajagopal, an industrialist with vast business interests in Hyderabad, has stated that he was ready to fight from any constituency in Telangana to prove that there was no public support to the cause of a separate state.
The demand for separate statehood to Telangana, comprising Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region, is over four decades old. The movement was revived by the TRS in 2000.
The issue was back at the centre-stage early this month when the Congress central leadership stated that it was mulling a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) to look into the demands for separate states, including Telangana and Vidarbha.
The TRS and BJP and Telangana leaders within the Congress party opposed the proposal on the ground that this would delay the process of state formation.