Andhra row: Congress invites both warring parties to talking table

NEW DELHI: Congress has clearly expressed its apathy towards Telengana Rashtra Samiti’s bargaining ploys. At a meeting held to address the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) in Hyderabad on Thursday, the Congress delegation, comprising rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and All India Congress Committee SC cell chief K Raju, openly told the audience that their party does not want to offer support to TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao.


Instead the Congress leaders sought the support of JAC leaders, hinting at a larger role for many of them capable of winning their seats. TRS is still squabbling over the issue of merger with Congress and some of its leaders are opposing even an alliance, let alone a merger. In this situation, it is in Congress’ interests to offer seats to popular leaders of the JAC.

According to JAC chairman Prof Kodanda Ram, the Congress leaders have made an appeal to the JAC to support the party. “Ramesh said that the development of the two regions of Telangana and Seemandhra depends on peaceful reconciliation of issues. He pointed out that regional parties like TRS may harm the process and only a party with a national perspective can achieve this,” said Kodanda Ram.

The Congress delegation also insisted on a meeting ground between the action committees of the two warring groups of Telangana and Seemandhra. “Jairam Ramesh wanted a non-governmental platform to ensure the smooth transition of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He fixed March 28 as the date for the first meeting of leaders of Telengana and Seemandhra action committees. He wanted a new committee to be formed to ensure that there is no bloodshed and peaceful creation of a new state,” said Mallepalli Lakshmaiah, co-chairman of the T-JAC.

According to Telengana JAC members, the Congress leadership is wary of Chandrashekhar Rao creating roadblocks towards a peaceful settlement of contentious issues. “We could see that the Congress leaders are upset about Chandrashekhar Rao’s statements that have made the people of Seemandhra nervous,” said Lakshmaiah. It is in this context the central government is planning a mechanism outside the government to manage dissent on either side and create amicable settlement of partisan issues. Hyderabad has a considerable population of people from coastal Andhra who have invested their life savings and turned the city into one of the biggest metros in the country.