Azad gives T-report to Sonia
Congress general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and submitted the report on the controversial Telangana statehood issue. The Congress core committee then discussed the issue but the deliberations remained inconclusive.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram, meanwhile, called on all political parties to make up their minds quickly on the contentious issue to enable him to convene an all-party meeting even as Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K. Chandrasekar Rao declared that the strike in Telangana would continue until statehood was granted.
According to sources, the report itself is inconclusive, but it has expressed apprehension of violence in some areas if the demands of the respective regions are not met. Sources added that the Congress may depute a small group of leaders to visit Andhra Pradesh and submit a ground report, after which the home ministry may call an all-party meet to discuss the issue.
In an attempt to build pressure on political parties, Congress MPs from Telangana have decided to write to Mr Chidambaram urging him to fix a cut-off date for the parties to take a stand on the issue, failing which their views on the issue prior to the December 9, 2009 statement should be construed as the official stands of the concerned parties.
Mr Azad is understood to have briefed Mrs Gandhi during their meeting about the on-going agitation in the Telangana region. In the run-up to preparing the report, Mr Azad has had extensive discussions with legislators of all the three regions who even made power-point presentations to buttress their points of view.
Mr Chidambaram, when asked about the prospective all-party meet, said four parties of Andhra Pradesh are yet to take a stand.
“TDP and MIM are waiting to see what the Congress party’s decision will be. The other party, the YSR Congress, has not indicated its mind either,” he said, adding, “I think one important stage of the consultation appears to be over today. I hope the parties will make up their minds quickly, as I appealed in Parliament, to enable me to call an all-party meeting.”
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