BJP demands Telangana state by 2009

Vikarabad, Andhra Pradesh, Aug 8 (UNI) Senior BJP leaders today demanded the formation of a separate Telangana state before 2009 and said it should not be an election slogan for any party as they had already promised the formation of Telangana in their election manifestoes in 2004.

Speaking at the BJP district level conference, organised by the ''Telangana Udyama'' Committee at 'Vikarabad' in Ranga Reddy district, Former BJP National President Bangaru Lakshman said if the Congress introduced a bill for a separate state, the BJP would make the dream of a separate Telangana a reality.

Telangana Udyama Committee Chairman and former Union Minister Ch Vidyasagara Rao, Party State President and Former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP National Secretarty N Indrasena Reddy and former MLA Baddam Bal Reddy also spoke on the occasion.

Mr Laxman blamed the Communists for making the dalits as scapegoats in their movement for distribution of land for the poor.

Mr Lakshman questioned why only dalits were dying and not the Communists party leaders in the movement and police firings.

Stating that the movement for Telangana state had started 20-years before the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, he said the movement against the 'Rajakars' of the erstwhile Nizam had started in 1847.

The 'Fazal Ali Commission Report' for recommending the formation of Telangana was buried by different governments, he alleged.

'' If the BJP comes back to power at the Centre in 2009, it will form a separate state,'' he said.

Though several major industries like the BHEL, HAL, HMT and the ECIL had came in the Ranga Reddy region, however, people in the region had not benefitted, he alleged.

UNI