Congress leaders adopt resolution seeking united AP

, Nov 4:

leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of

, who met at the camp office of Chief Minister N

here this evening, once again adopted a resolution seeking that the state be kept united.

"The state should be kept united under any circumstances," the one-line resolution said. The resolution would be submitted to the Group of Ministers, constituted by the Centre to look into the bifurcation issue, in response to the request made by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

Though there was reportedly a division of opinion on whether or not to respond to the MHA request, the leaders finally adopted the one-line resolution reiterating their demand for a unified state, a senior minister said.

"Some legislators felt that giving a memorandum to the GoM will amount to accepting the division process. In the end, however, we passed a resolution for a united state and that will be submitted to the GoM," the minister added.

State ministers, MLCs and MLAs attended the meeting in the presence of Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana.

Earlier in the day, Botsa held a separate meeting with Congress leaders from Telangana region to elicit their views on the issues to be presented to the GoM. He asked them to give their views in the form of a report on the 11 terms of reference listed by the MHA.

The resolution would be submitted to the Group of Ministers.

Deputy Chief Minister Damodara Rajanarasimha, senior ministers, Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Balram Naik and other leaders attended the meeting. "We will submit our response to the MHA tomorrow," Botsa said after the meeting.

Senior minister K Jana Reddy said they were preparing a report on the division of funds and sharing of water, to be submitted to the GoM. He requested the PCC chief to co-operate with the division process, in line with the Congress high command's decision.

PTI