Mixed reaction from non-Cong parties to Telangana

NEW DELHI: Even as Congress claimed credit for the decision to form Telangana state, other parties today gave mixed reactions with BJP claiming it would have formed the state during NDA rule but for opposition from a key ally while the Left cautioned that this may spur more such demands.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, spearheading the agitation for the separate state since long, welcomed the Congress Working Committee decision to form a separate Telangana state.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani said "as far as we are concerned, our party is concerned, if Telangana was not formed when we had formed three new states it was only because of our respecting one of our coalition partners. Otherwise we would have done it even then".

He was referring to the objection from TDP, which was supporting the NDA government, to the formation of Telangana.

CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said statehood for Telangana will spur such demands in other parts of the country.

"The central government will have to take the responsibility to see that there is no further division of states whether it is West Bengal or anywhere else," he said.