Reiterating its stand on Telangana statehood, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Saturday warned the Centre of second phase of Telanagana agitation if it went back on its promise of delivering Telangana state.
Addressing a massive public meeting ‘Telangana Praja Garjana’ here on Saturday, she said “If the UPA fails to introduce Telangana Bill in the parliament, we will begin agitation afresh and it would be on a massive scale and the Congress will be responsible for the consequences.
“We will wait till December. If Telangana Bill is passed in Parliament in the winter session, I will come here again to celebrate. Otherwise, I will come to lead the second round of struggle for Telangana,” she said.
The Congress has two months time and during this period it should sort out all the issues that will emerge due to state bifurcation. The BJP will accept 10 districts with Hyderabad as the capital as it was announced by the Congress Working Committee on July 30, she asserted.
Sushma Swaraj said that this was not the first time that a new state is being formed. The BJP-led NDA government has carved three states without any bloodshed. Though lot of agitations took place in these three states but once the BJP has decided to create new states it did it peacefully after discussing with all the stakeholders. The UPA should also take all the stakeholders in confidence and divide the state peacefully, she remarked.
“Even after Chhattisgarh was separated from Madhya Pradesh the people of both the states continued to live in harmony. We are asking for geographical division and not division of people. We want the people of Telangana and Seemandhra to live in harmony and help each other,’’ she said.
She urged political party leaders and organisation not to make provocative statements and create hurdles in the process.
On reports that the BJP was planning to take U-turn on Telangana issue as it was planning to strike alliance with the TDP she dismissed them as baseless. These rumours became widespread when TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu met BJP president Rajnath Singh in Delhi. Whereas the truth is that during the meeting the issue of alliance was not discussed which was even clarified by Rajnath Singh.
“Whether there is alliance or not the BJP will not change its stance on Telangana at any cost. The BJP will never betray the people of Telangana. I am assuring this,’’ she said.
She assured the people of Mahabubnagar that the Palamuru Lift Irrigation project will be declared as national project after NDA government comes to power at the Centre.
BJP state president G Kishan Reddy, general secretary P Muralidhar Rao, TJAC chairman M Kodandaram, Srinivas Goud, BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Nagam Janardhan Reddy among others were also present.