Postpone all-party meet on Telangana: Kiran Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad, Dec 8:

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the state Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana have sought the postponement of the all-party meeting on the

issue.

Earlier this week, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced that representative from the parties concerned will meet in New Delhi on Dec 28 to discuss whether the state of Telangana should be formed by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.

Shinde's announcement was seen as a move to placate the seven Congress MPs from Telangana who were upset over the Centre's indecision on the statehood issue.

Madhu Yaskhi Goud, G Vivekanand, Ponnam Prabhakar, Rajagopal Reddy, G Sukhender Reddy, S Rajaiah and M Jagannath had threatened to boycott the crucial FDI vote in the Lok Sabha on Dec 5.

They wanted the government to commit to an all-party meeting before the FDI vote. In the last all-party meeting, the Centre had asked the parties to appoint two representatives to speak in favour of a separate state. This time, the MPs have stuck to the demand of deputing only one leader from each party.

Since the UPA government needed every vote for its survival, the Centre promised the seven MPs that an all-party meet would be organised in the national capital before the month-end.

However, there was a shift in stance soon after the UPA survived the floor test. On Dec 6, Kiran Kumar Reddy and Satyanarayana urged Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad to defer the meet in New Delhi as the three-day World Telugu Conference (WTC) is slated to begin at Tirupati on Dec 27.

"Since the WTC is a prestigious event, both CM and me suggested it will be better to postpone the all-party meet," Satyanarayana told newspersons here yesterday.

He said that Congress "would first like to know the views" of other parties before conveying its stand on Telangana.

OneIndia News