Hyderabad, June 1 (IANS) Congress MPs from Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh have again extended their deadline for the central leadership to table a bill in parliament to carve out a separate Telangana state.
With the June 1 deadline coming to an end, the MPs held a meeting here to chalk out their course of action and decided to give another month’s time to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to make a clear-cut announcement on their demand.
Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao told reporters after the meeting that this was the last deadline and that there would be direct action after July 1.
The MPs decided to hold a meeting with party legislators from the region on June 5 to evolve a joint strategy. They will leave for Delhi the next day and camp in the national capital till June 10.
‘We will remind the centre of its obligations and commitments over Telangana,’ the senior leader said.
K. Rajagopal Reddy, at whose residence the meeting was held, said they were ready for any tough decision after July 1.
‘We are ready for any sacrifice, including sacrifice of the post, party and even life. There will be no compromise on Telangana,’ he said and dropped hints that they could launch hunger strike to press for their demand.
He said the MPs would meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They also sent a letter to the prime minister, seeking time to meet him and also urging him to take an early decision on Telangana.
The MPs hoped that the central leadership of the party would take a favourable decision before June-end.
The MPs had earlier agreed to wait till the elections in five assemblies got over and later extended the deadline to June 1.
When asked if the MPs would quit if their demand was not accepted by July 1, Keshava Rao said he would not like to go on repeating the same thing, while his colleague Rajagopal Reddy said if resignations had helped in formation of a separate state, they would have submitted these long back.
Congress has 12 Lok Sabha members from Telangana, which accounts for 17 of 42 MPs from Andhra Pradesh.
