Cong MPs from Telangana hit out at non-Telangana counterparts

NEW DELHI: Camping here to drum up support for Telangana, Congress MPs from the region today launched a frontal attack on their counterparts from non-Telangana areas accusing them of "conspiring against" the creation of a separate state by "telling lies".

The MPs also singled out Rajya Sabha MP K V P Ramachandra Rao, a close aide of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, alleging that he is "hell bent on keeping Andhra Pradesh united" only to help the YSR Congress of rebel Jaganmohan Reddy.

The MPs from Telangana region took their case to senior Congress leaders Motilal Vora, Digvijay Singh and Janardhan Dwivedi and addressed a press conference during which they claimed that the movement for keeping Andhra Pradesh united was a "orchestrated" by a few "vested interests".

"The Seemandhra MPs are telling lies. They don't want a separate state of Telangana be created. They now know that Telangana is going to be a reality. So they are trying to scuttle it," Nizamabad MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi, who is at the forefront of the pro-Telangana agitation, told reporters.

Yaskhi's attack came a day after the Seemandhra MPs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad demanding that Andhra Pradesh should not be bifurcated at any cost.

Senior Congress leader K Keshav Rao said this showed the "dominant attitude" of leaders from the non-Telangana regions to impose decisions forcefully on the people of Telangana.