Andhra Pradesh

KCR downplays Congress leaders' absence

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, DEC. 12 . "We had invited them. It was left to them whether to come or not," was how Union Labour Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, reacted to leaders of its alliance partner, Congress, abstaining from the TRS rally here on Saturday.

At a news conference here on Sunday to thank leaders of parties who attended the rally, Mr. Rao said there was no need for `post-mortem' into why the four senior Congress leaders from the State who were invited to the meeting did not show up.

Regarding the grouse of Congress leaders that they abstained because the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was not invited, Mr. Rao said a conscious decision was taken to extend the invitation only to party chiefs.

TDP criticised

It was against this background that the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was not invited although he had evinced interest in coming. Instead, his daughter and People's Democratic Party president, Mahbooba Mufti, was approached and she obliged.

It was not that the TRS did not have respect for Dr. Reddy. The party honoured his position and treated him accordingly. Mr. Rao criticised the statement of TDP that the irrigation projects contemplated by the State Government would stop if Telangana was created. "Why will they stop," he asked.

They need not stop on the ground that World Bank loans were spent on them.

The money was spent on them project-wise and it would be recovered accordingly. Such statements exposed the mental pressure of the TDP leaders with Telangana State almost a certainty.

He called for split of the State in a brotherly manner. He hoped the process of formation of Telangana would be in full swing by January.

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