Srikrishna report meeting: Uttam, Sambasiva may represent Cong

HYDERABAD: The ruling Congress is likely to be represented by its MLA N Uttam Kumar Reddy and MP K Sambasiva Rao in the meeting of eight political parties convened by the Centre on January 6 to discuss the Srikrishna committee report.

"I met state Congress president D Srinivas. He told me that I may have to attend the meeting convened by the Centre. He asked me to be prepared for that," Reddy told reporters here.

To a query, Reddy said he felt that the meeting was convened only to hand over the Srikrishna committee report.

"My information is that Telangana issue may not be discussed at the meeting. The Srikrishna committee report will be given to the political parties. It is a 600-page report. A response cannot be given immediately. So, they will neither ask for response nor do we need to give one," he said.

Reddy, MLA from Telangana region and Rao, MP from coastal Andhra, had represented the ruling party in a similar meeting of political parties convened by the Centre in January last year.

According to sources, Rao, who also met Srinivas today, is also likely to represent Congress in the meeting.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had called a meeting of political parties to discuss the Srikrishna Committee report before making it public.

However, in a setback to the Centre's consultation process, the TRS and BJP yesterday decided not to attend the January 6 meeting in New Delhi to discuss the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana, saying it was a "deliberate attempt" to seek divergent opinions on the issue.

On the remarks of Congress MPs like K Keshav Rao that they were ready to quit for the sake of Telangana, Uttam Kumar Reddy said such a situation may not arise.