TRS to attend Centre's meet on Telangana

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti on Wednesday night said it will attend the meeting of political parties of Andhra Pradesh convened by the Centre to discuss the Telangana issue.

"Since the government of India has invited all the political parties in AP, we are definitely going to attend the meeting on January 5. But we will take a collective decision on our stand in the all party Joint Action Committee," former TRS MP B Vinod Kumar told reporters after a meeting with party President K Chandrasekhar Rao and other senior party leaders.

In a bid to find a way out of the Telangana imbroglio, the Centre has convened a meeting in New Delhi on January 5 of 8 recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh for a discussion on the issue.

P Chidambaram sent an invitation to the leaders of the 8 parties following his December 23 statement in which he had promised to hold wide ranging consultations with all political parties and groups in the state on the issue of separate Telangana state.

The Congress, TDP, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India - Marxist, Praja Rajyam, Bharatiya Janata Party and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen are the recognised parties in Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre's decision comes after detailed discussions in the government and at the highest political level in Congress party in the last few days after political parties were divided on regional lines in Andhra Pradesh and demanded immediate steps  on formation of the separate state.

Parties and leaders from Telangana  cited the statement of Chidambaram on December 9 in which he had promised that that the process of forming Telangana state would be initiated.