Telangana Congress Forum to hold convention on May 14

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MAY 7. Congress MLAs from Telangana have resolved to launch an outfit called Telangana Congress Forum (TCF) and hold its first convention here on May 14.

This convention is expected to adopt resolutions demanding separate statehood for Telangana which will be submitted by a five-member delegation to the Congress High Command the following day.

Mr. V. Purushotham Reddy, Congress MLA from Nalgonda district, has been named convenor of the TCF at the meeting of the Telangana Congress Legislators Forum held here on Sunday. Twentyone MLAs attended the deliberations which were presided over by Mr. A. Indrakaran Reddy.

Addressing a press conference today, Messrs Indrakaran Reddy, Purushotham Reddy, P. Govardhan Reddy and G. Chinna Reddy, MLAs, said they would wait for one month for a positive response from the party high command. In a veiled warning to the leadership, they said there would be an adverse reaction if the central leadership did not take a quick decision.

They explained that the decision to constitute the outfit, which existed under the same name earlier under the leadership of Mr. M. Baga Reddy, was aimed at giving a fillip to the activities of the forum which had been on a low key all these months. A full- fledged body would be constituted after the May 14 convention.

All Congress MPs and MLAs from the region besides AICC and PCC, DCC and Block Congress presidents, Municipal chairpersons, Mandal presidents and representatives of NSUI, INTUC and senior leaders were being invited to attend the convention. However, no invitation was being extended to the PCC (I) president, Mr. M. Satyanarayan Rao, and the CLP leader, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, as they represented the party in all the three regions.

The Congress MLAs said there could be no Telangana without the support and backing of the Congress, especially its 140 members in the Lok Sabha. While offering to cooperate with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader, Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, as they were fighting for a common cause, they resented his frequent criticism against their party.

They hoped that the BJP would shed its highly opportunistic stand on the issue of Telangana and work for creation of a new state. Otherwise, people of the region would teach the BJP a fitting lesson. Mr. Govardhan Reddy also flayed the Communists for harping on the theme of integration without ever raising their voice against injustices done to Telangana.

The Congress MLAs asserted that it was because of the pressure exerted by them that the TDP Government had agreed to lay the foundation stone for the Ichampally project and to shift Gandhi Hospital to the Musheerabad jail premises. However, this pieacemal approach would not solve the problems of Telangana, they added.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Centre offers loan for housing scheme
Next     : Deendar Anjuman office sealed