Date:13/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/13/stories/2004121305520400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

CPI(M) talks light of demand for Telangana

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI, DEC. 12. The CPI(M) floor leader, Nomula Narasimhaiah, has said the demand for carving out a separate Telangana State is a result of the machinations of the `politically unemployed' to derive mileage out of poverty and deprivation plaguing the region.

``The public outcry for food and basic needs was being projected as a demand for statehood,'' he said pointing out how the recently-formed states like Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand were starving for funds.

Addressing a media conference here on Sunday, he said that the Left parties would oppose political parties working against people's welfare, indicating that the Congress Government would be opposed if it preferred to tread the path taken by the TDP Government.

Asked to comment on the TDP's signals to move closer to the Left parties, Mr. Narasimhaiah termed the overture as an example of Mr. Naidu's `opportunism.' Recalling Mr. Naidu's dubbing of communism as irrelevant today, he said that the CPI(M) would never ally with the TDP.

At a public meeting in Vijayawada, the party's Polit Bureau member, Koratala Satyanarayana, ridiculed the claims of the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhar Reddy.