MP and Congress Working Committee member K. Kesava Rao on Sunday said that he and other MPs and MLAs would quit their memberships if the Centre did not grant statehood to Telangana immediately.
Participating in a function organised by Telangana employees’ association in connection with the inauguration of Telangana Diary, Dr Rao, while addressing the gathering, said, “We have waited all these days, we have made our stand clear a number of times to the high command, we have no further patience, Telangana is more important for me than the party and party posts.” Nalgonda Congress MP G. Sukhender Reddy also asked the party leadership to immediately concede the T-state failing which all 11 MPs from Telangana would quit.
The Congress brass had specifically asked the party MPs and legislators not to speak on the T-issue or on the Srikrishna Committee report in public. But on Sunday, MPs led by Dr Kesava Rao spoke out publicly.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, while addressing the meeting, said if a few Congress MPs and MLAs would threaten to quit, the Congress central leadership would immediately grant statehood.
“If Congress MPs and MLAs quit their posts, is their any guarantee for the Kiran Kumar Reddy and Manmohan Singh governments’ continuation?” he asked.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman, Prof. Kodandaram, said that the JAC would stage a “maha dharna” near Indira Park on January 6 in protest of the all-party meeting.
The dharna would demand the Central government to take immediately steps to introduce the T-Bill in Parliament Budget Session.
Earlier in the day, several party MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other leaders from Telangana region met at the residence of the Peddapalli MP, Mr G. Vinod, and discussed the political situation after the Justice Srikrishna Committee report was made public and the all-party meeting convened by the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on January 6 took place.