Congress members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, who met Ghulam Nabi Azad, the All India Congress Committee general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh affairs, on Friday in New Delhi have set the deadline of June 1 for the Central government to come out with a favourable announcement on Telangana state, failing which they said they will be constrained to quit the Parliament and continue only as an ordinary worker of the Congress party.
This was the first meeting of Telangana MP with Azad after he took the charge as party general secretary in charge of AP affairs recently.
The threat has come within days of the secret report of Srikrishna committee hitting the headlines in which the committee had recommended that the Congress leaders of Telangana should be kept away from the separate state movement by offering them key posts.
MPs expressed their anger over the contents of the Chapter 8 of the report which was kept under the wraps by the Union government. The MPs told Azad that the report has further damaged the image of the Congress party in the eyes of the Telangana people as they are seeing the entire exercise of Srikrishna committee as an attempt to sabotage the movement.
Giving the details of the situation prevailing in the region, the MPs told Azad that they were facing a grave threat to their political and social life and were unable even to stay at their homes not knowing when they will be attacked.
In such a situation, the MPs told Azad, there will be no option but to resign and stand with the ordinary people of the region.
What has further compounded the matters for Congress leadership that the party MPs from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema region have also adopted an uncompromising stand against Telangana state.
Azad later met the Congress MPs from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions who told him that division of Andhra Pradesh was not acceptable to them.
L Rajagopal of Vijaywada submitted a 20 page report to Azad giving his assessment of the situation. He wanted the party to brazen out the demand for Telangana as it will not cause any damage to the party if it were to reject the demand for separate state. Union Minister D Purandareswari was also part of the delegation which met Azad.
Rajagopal, whose Lanco company is developing multi million dollar township in Hyderabad, also strongly supported the Srirkishna committee report and urged that the Center should implement fully.
After meeting Azad, two MPs -- Subbi Rami Reddy and Magunta Srinivas Reddy -- said that Azad assured him that an amicable solution will be found.
Meanwhile another MP from coastal Andhra K Sambasiva Rao told mediapersons in Hyderabad that a smaller state cannot be formed only on the basis of emotions. "If that was the case, India will have to be divided in to 1,000 states", he warned.
