Congress leaders from Telangana cancel Delhi trip

NEW DELHI: The Congress sent out a stern message to its Telangana leadership to desist from aggravating tensions ahead of the Telangana political Joint Action Committee’s January 28 deadline to the Union government to announce the road map for the creation of the new state.

In keeping with this, Congress MLAs and MPs from Telangana cancelled their trip to the Capital on Tuesday and decided to put their resignations on hold. Two former ministers K Jana Reddy and R Damodar Reddy, who came to the Capital on Monday but returned to Hyderbad by Tuesday, said the Centre would announce a "positive decision" in a day or two on the creation of a separate state.

"Soon, very soon we are expecting a positive decision on the Telangana issue. So we have decided not to go ahead with our resignations," Mr Jana Reddy said. In the Capital, the two ministers met Union law minister and AICC general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh Mr Moily. Meanwhile, TDP legislators from Telangana, who met in Hyderabad, expressed dismay over the Congress' decision and wanted the issue to be discussed in the JAC.

Mr Moily confirmed that he had asked Congress’ Telangana MPs and MLAs not to come to the Capital in order to press their demand. “I have said that the decision should be left to the government,” Mr Moily said adding that a decision could be expected on the issue soon.

However, a senior Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh said the Centre was unlikely to take any step before January 28 as it would be viewed as a sign that the Union government was surrendering to the diktats of the JAC. A top Congress leader also said that the Centre was not bound to meet the JAC deadline.

Congress’ Telangana leaders wanted to put pressure on the party high command on the statehood issue by meeting the top leaders in the Capital. They also wanted to exhibit their commitment to the Telangana cause in the wake of immense pressure from the JAC to put in their papers. The Congress high command had already conveyed to them that they should not take any steps that would whip up tensions in the region, including resigning. This has put the Congress leaders in a bind as the JAC has made just the opposite demand from them.

The Congress at the Centre has not paid heed to their dilemma so far. Mr Moily said that the resignations would not solve the problem but would rather aggravate it. "If you people resign, the assembly will get dissolved. Then the Telangana issue will get indefinitely postponed as there can be no consultations without the assembly in place," agencies quoted Mr Moily telling the Telangana leaders. He also warned them that the statehood issue would get further complicated if leaders from all the regions came and lobbied in Delhi.

The law minister’s comments assume significant as pressure on the Centre from the Telangana group is likely to trigger an equal reaction from the coastal Andhra and Rayalseema leaders in opposing any move by the Centre to announce a road map for the creation of a new state.