Telangana supporters across the board have taken deep offence to Jaipal Reddy's statements made on Saturday at the meeting where Botsa Satyanarayana took charge as APCC chief.
The Union Petroleum Minister had said, "As Congress leaders, we do not subscribe to regionalism, or for that matter, sub-regionalism either. The Congress is a true nationalist party."
TRS leader T Harish Rao was among those who quickly reacted on Saturday, and said this showed that Jaipal Reddy was anti-Telangana.
And today, despite the Union minister having tried to undo the damage done by his remarks (by claiming that they were not made with the Telangana issue in mind) the reactions got a bit more violent.
Telangana lawyers staged a dharna at Jaipal Reddy's residence in Hyderabad, with loud "Jai Telangana" sloganeering. The police took some of the protestors into custody.
Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha MP from the Telangana region V Hanumantha Rao also condemned Jaipal Reddy' remarks, as did YSR Congress Party leader Gone Prakash Rao. In fact, Gone accused Jaipal Reddy of having arranged for attacks on the Telangana students who had agitated in 1969.
V Hanumantha Rao also demanded to know why the 8th Chapter of the Sri Krishna Committee's report was not being revealed to the public. He accused the Sri Krishna Committee of having made controversial recommendations, which was the reason the chapter was being covered up.