Congress spent forces take up the cudgels for Telangana

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The spent forces in the ruling Congress party are trying to seize the occasion and mount pressure on the party high command to bifurcate AP and carve out Telangana even as Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao remained adamant on his fast-unto-death over the statehood demand.
As the movement for Telangana no longer remains in the hands of TRS, the so-called “Congress seniors” want to utilize the opportunity and improve their political fortunes, observers say.
Congress Working Committee member G Venkataswamy, who could barely walk, visited Chandrasekhar Rao at the NIMS here and later shot off a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi to take an urgent decision on Telangana. He wanted Sonia Gandhi to permit the state government to move a resolution in the winter session of Legislature favouring creation of Telangana state. “This is the right time for creating Telangana state in deference to the aspirations of the people,” Venkataswamy said in the letter.
Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao, Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation chairman M Satyanarayana Rao and former MLA Uppunutala Purushottam Reddy – who no longer enjoy public support – too are championing the Telangana cause.
State Ministers, hailing from Telangana region, too are apparently under pressure.
While vowing their “unflinching support” for a separate state, these ministers too announced that they would mount pressure on their high command for conceding the Telangana demand.
Among the Telangana ministers were P Sabita Indra Reddy, D Sridhar Babu, D K Aruna, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, Sunitha Laxma Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
These ministers called on KCR at NIMS and persuaded him to give up the fast but to no avail. They told him that they had already written a letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking her immediate intervention in the issue.
“Writing letter is not enough. You people go to her personally and get a concrete assurance on formation of Telangana state. Only then will I end my fast,” Chandrasekhar Rao, a former Union Minister, reportedly said.
Even Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas was told by KCR in similar terms and the former will begin his efforts (for Telangana) in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress circles are abuzz with talk that certain sections within the party have been trying hard to project Chief Minister K Rosaiah in a poor light by pointing to the “law and order failure” in the wake of the stepped up movement for Telangana.
“At least two aspirants for the Chief Minister’s post are trying to project the happenings over Telangana as a failure on part of Rosaiah and push him into a spot. They want to show to the high command that Rosaiah is ‘infirm’ and could not handle delicate situations like these properly,” one senior leader observed.
Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao, however, was quick to come to the defence of the Chief Minister saying: “If indeed there is any law and order failure, the Home Minister should also be held equally responsible.”
Now, everyone is curiously watching how the ministers and MLAs from Telangana act in the state Legislature which will sit for its winter session from Monday.