Hyderabad:
Congress MPs, legislators and state ministers from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh have said they will resign en masse on July 4 in support of their demand for a separate state.
"The people of Telangana are expecting us to quit our posts for achieving separate statehood. Due to the delay in the formation of Telangana, there is an impression that we are not quitting our posts out of lust for power," Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy said.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad urged his colleagues from Telangana not to take any hasty descisions. "They should not resign in a hurry. This is complicated. It is not easy to decide on whether state should be united or divided, because this issue will have repercussions in other parts of the country as well," he said.
The revolt within the Congress over Telangana is not new. And its reinvigoration may stem from the fact that just two days ago, K Chandrasekhara Rao, or KCR as he's known, warned in a public speech that "Telangana will burn" if the PM doesn't deliver on a promise made by his government in 2009 to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
"If you do any hera-pheri, Telangana will not tolerate you. You will see a burning Telangana. The hearts of Telangana people will burn and you alone will be responsible for what happens," he said.
On December 9, 2009, the Centre had announced that the process for formation of a separate Telangana state would be initiated. This after 11 days of fasting by KCR, and massive violent protests in the Telangana region. However, after leaders from the non-Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh objected, political parties in the state u-turned away from the path to a new state.
The Centre set up the Sikrishna Commission which travelled to different parts of Andhra Pradesh to gauge what people and their representatives really wanted. The Commission presented six options to the centre. Since then, the government in Delhi has said only that it is assessing these options.
Congress leaders from Telangana had recently met the Prime Minister and senior leader Pranabh Mukherjee in Delhi. At that time, they said they'd be forced to take serious action if no new push for a Telangana state was made by the end of June.
Congress Rajya Sabha member K Keshavrao claimed that party leaders from non-Telangana regions were trying to scuttle the formation of Telangana by meeting top Congress leaders in the first week of July. The Congress has around 10 ministers in the state government, 50 MLAs and 11 MPs from Telangana.
"The people of Telangana are expecting us to quit our posts for achieving separate statehood. Due to the delay in the formation of Telangana, there is an impression that we are not quitting our posts out of lust for power," Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy said.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad urged his colleagues from Telangana not to take any hasty descisions. "They should not resign in a hurry. This is complicated. It is not easy to decide on whether state should be united or divided, because this issue will have repercussions in other parts of the country as well," he said.
The revolt within the Congress over Telangana is not new. And its reinvigoration may stem from the fact that just two days ago, K Chandrasekhara Rao, or KCR as he's known, warned in a public speech that "Telangana will burn" if the PM doesn't deliver on a promise made by his government in 2009 to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
"If you do any hera-pheri, Telangana will not tolerate you. You will see a burning Telangana. The hearts of Telangana people will burn and you alone will be responsible for what happens," he said.
On December 9, 2009, the Centre had announced that the process for formation of a separate Telangana state would be initiated. This after 11 days of fasting by KCR, and massive violent protests in the Telangana region. However, after leaders from the non-Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh objected, political parties in the state u-turned away from the path to a new state.
The Centre set up the Sikrishna Commission which travelled to different parts of Andhra Pradesh to gauge what people and their representatives really wanted. The Commission presented six options to the centre. Since then, the government in Delhi has said only that it is assessing these options.
Congress leaders from Telangana had recently met the Prime Minister and senior leader Pranabh Mukherjee in Delhi. At that time, they said they'd be forced to take serious action if no new push for a Telangana state was made by the end of June.
Congress Rajya Sabha member K Keshavrao claimed that party leaders from non-Telangana regions were trying to scuttle the formation of Telangana by meeting top Congress leaders in the first week of July. The Congress has around 10 ministers in the state government, 50 MLAs and 11 MPs from Telangana.
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