Seemandhra Congress MLAs and MLCs will meet in Hyderabad on Thursday to discuss the road ahead for them in the wake of the Centre quickening the process for formation of Telangana state even as a couple of Central ministers began falling in line with the diktats of the party high command.
Seemandhra Legislators Forum convenor and minister S Sailajanath on Tuesday said that they would continue to exert pressure on the Centre to keep the state united since they believed that it was the only solution to the myriad problems the state was facing.
“We will meet at 12 noon on Oct 17 to discuss ways to persuade the party leadership from dividing the state. There is no deviation from our stand. We have been firm from the beginning that justice could be done to minorities, weaker sections, dalits and women only when the state remains united,” Sailajanath said.
He said unlike the parties who had sought division of the state in the past and who have now made an volte-face now, the Congress MLAs and MLCs have been demanding that the state should remain untied come what may. The people on their own came out on to the streets after the Congress Working Committee’s (CWC) decision in favour of Telangana state.
“This is a major Satyagraha taking place in the country and the party high command should take a note of it,” he said, adding: “People in crores and employees in lakhs are agitating against bifurcation of the state. This is quite unprecedented,” he said.
With Central ministers D Purandeswari and Panabaka Lakshmi not opposing bifurcation of the state, Sailajanath said that it is possible that they were their personal views.
Regardless of what they are saying, the Seemandhra MLAs and MLCs are for a united Andhra Pradesh, he said.