Cong considering creation of Telangana

New Delhi, Aug 21: The Congress today said it was considering the demand of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) for the creation of separate state of Telangana but there was no consensus within the ruling coalition on the issue.

AICC General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who is in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs in the Congress, had a meeting with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also head of the UPA Sub-Committee on the issue, to apprise himself about the latest on the matter.

After half-an-hour-long meeting, Mr Singh said the Congress wanted 'consensus' within the UPA on the issue and pointed to the opposition from the Communist Party of India (Marxists) and other Left parties.

Dismissing TRS claims that there were enough numbers in Parliament to pass a law for creation of Telangana since the BJP had expressed its willingness to vote in its favour, Mr Singh said the Congress wanted consensus within UPA and never wanted to associate itself with the BJP.

''We have no truck with the BJP,'' Mr Singh remarked after his meeting with Mr Mukherjee.

Mr Mukherjee, however, declined to comment on the issue after his meeting with Mr Singh.

Asked if the Congress was not willing to offer a face saver for the TRS Chief, Mr Singh said Mr Rao was part of the UPA and the Government. The Congress has given him an assurance (on Telangana) and it was for him to take part in the process of governance and development of not just Telangana but the entire country, he said.

''Mr Rao had left the decision on the issue to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He should await her decision and the Pranab Mukherjee Sub-Committee,'' he said.

About the TRS insisting on a concrete assurance for it not to carry out its threat to withdraw from the UPA, Mr Singh said the UPA had given him an assurance and it could be carried out during the next five years. ''There is enough time to implement the assurance,'' he said.

On the TRS Chief threatening to sit on a dharna at Jantar Mantar, Mr Singh said he had not heard about it.

UNI