Congress intensifies talks with pro-Telangana legislators

NEW DELHI: Congress has stepped up efforts to persuade its nine pro-Telangana MPs, whose resignations are pending with the Lok Sabha Speaker, to withdraw their papers ahead of the start of the monsoon session.

The central leadership intensified its engagement with the pro-Telangana legislators, both at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh, to prevail upon them to give up the agitational path and adopt the dialogue route to find a mutually acceptable solution to their aspirations and grievances.

The exercise to bring Telangana negotiations back on track has assumed urgency as the monsoon session of Parliament is just round the corner. As it is, the session promises to be a stormy one for the government which is battling corruption cases involving ex-ministers. Given that MPs from the Telangana region have taken care to submit their resignation letters in the required format, the pendency of their resignations is certain to invite questions from the Opposition on why they were not being accepted by the Speaker.

Nearly a fortnight has passed without any decision on the fate of the MPs' resignation letters.

There is no agreement or consensus in sight within Congress on the way forward on Telangana. The tussle has only worsened with Congress chief points man Ghulam Nabi Azad recently suggesting the passage of unanimous resolution by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in favour of Telangana, much to the chagrin of the pro-Telangana legislators. Azad, during a media interaction in Beijing, had even rubbished the Justice Srikrishna panel's report mooting six options on Telangana, saying that purpose of the committee was only to pacify the agitation that had peaked in December 2009.

However, given the impending Parliament session, there is consensus in Congress that the party's pro-Telangana MPs should be persuaded to take back their resignations as early as possible.

This would involve convincing them with the argument that quitting would not help the Telangana cause and it is only through further negotiations that the option of statehood can be explored. An interim assurance that Telangana is still an option on the table is likely to be used to persuade the MPs to withdraw their resignation letters with immediate effect.