Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has announced that he is "neither against nor supportive of" the formation of a separate Telangana State.
Talking to reporters at the NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Naidu said that he is completely neutral on the state bifurcation issue.
"In case of state's bifurcation, I will be a leader for both Telangana and Seemandhra regions," he hoped.
He said he needs to protect the interest of his party in both the regions.
The TDP chief said that he was aware of the feelings of people from both the regions and therefore, and cannot support or oppose any of them. He alleged that the Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi have secretly joined hands to finish the Telugu Desam Party in the Telangana region.
Commenting on the ongoing Sakala Janula Samme, Naidu said that the entire Telangana region is being pushed into a crisis by TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and JAC chairman Prof. M Kodandaram.
Further, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has proved inefficient in handling the crisis, he stated
He said the leaders spearheading the Telangana agitation are trying to gain political mileage without considering that their acts were causing lot of hardship to both the on-strike employees and the common man.
He also lamented that farmers have been suffering due to power cuts being imposed on the agricultural sector. Further, the cuts for the industrial sector are resulting in job losses due to a decline in production, he said. He said that he requests the employees of Singareni Collieries to withdraw the strike in the interests of Telangana farmers and workers.
The TDP president also demanded that the government streamline the supply of fertilizers to farmers across the state. He alleged that an artificial shortage of fertilisers has been created due to the government's inability, and that farmers would be forced to spend over Rs. 2,000 crore to buy fertilisers from the black market. (INN)