Telangana row: Minister, Cong leaders threaten to resign

Twelve legislators and many other functionaries led by state endowments minister J Krishna Rao had a meeting to review the situation following the release of the Sri Krishna Commission report on the proposed Telangana.

Some Congress leaders on Friday made a renewed pitch for Telangana by threatening to resign their posts in the party or government if the UPA government did not take steps to create the new state. Twelve legislators and many other functionaries led by state endowments minister J Krishna Rao had a meeting to review the situation following the release of the Sri Krishna Commission report on the proposed Telangana.

HT Image

They called on Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and asked him to prevail on the Congress high command to bring in the bill (for Telangana); else, they would resign from their seats, they said. They also asked the chief minister to recall the paramilitary forces from the university campuses and lift the bar on covering Telangana-related incidents by the electronic media.

"Where is the need for sending the forces to the university campuses as the students are protesting peacefully? This will only escalate (tension)," a Congress MLA said.

The TDP too got into the act, and staged a demonstration in front of Raj Bhavan, demanding the recall of Andhra Pradesh governor ERL Narasimhan for being allegedly "anti-Telangana".

Telugu Desam Party leader Nagam Janaradhan Reddy wanted the Centre to pull out the paramilitary forces from the Telangana region and recall the governor.