Cong leaders threaten to resign to press for Telangana state

The threat issued on Sunday came in the backdrop of widespread expectations that the Centre-appointed Srikrishna committee would submit its report on the statehood demand by the end of this year.

The pro-Telangana leaders of the ruling party fear that the panel might not make a categorical recommendation for granting statehood to the Telangana region. Seven ministerial colleagues of Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, nine MPs, 15 MLAs assembly and four MLCs belonging to the ruling party met here on Sunday to voice their support for Telangana state.


They said they were ready for any sacrifice to achieve the goal.

The leaders urged the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to table a statehood bill in parliament during the ensuing budget session. Speaking to media persons following the meeting, senior leader and Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao hoped that the Srikrishna panel report would genuinely meet the aspirations of the people from the Telangana region.

The meeting took place just as the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee led by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao was holding a parallel pro-Telangana meeting in the state capital.

The pro-Telangana Congress leaders said the TRS would become redundant if the Congress took the initiative create the separate state.  Adopting a stand that appeared to be tougher than the one adopted by the TRS, the pro-Telangana Congress leaders demanded that the state government should withdraw all cases against students involved in the Telangana statehood agitation earlier during the year. They announced a hunger strike from Monday if the government failed to withdraw the cases.

The Congress meeting also demanded that the state government send back all Central paramilitary forces already deployed by in the state ahead of the expected submission of the Srikrishna committee report. Rao cautioned Chief Minister Reddy against the use of paramilitary forces and said the deployment was unprovoked.

The leaders demanded that the Congress abide by its Dec 9, 2009 statement to initiate the process for formation of Telangana state. “If this is not done, we will have no face to show to our constituents,” Rao said.