TDP Supports Telangana: Nama

The Telugu Desam Party announced that it would support the Telangana Bill whenever it is introduced in Parliament.

Talking to reporters after attending the meeting of the Telangana TDP Forum held at the Telugu Desam Legislature Party office in Hyderabad on Saturday, TDP Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageswara Rao said that the TDP would be the first party to support the Telangana Bill, whenever it is introduced in Parliament.

However, he did not specify whether this decision has the approval of party president N Chandrababu Naidu.

It may be mentioned here that of the 6 Lok Sabha MPs the party has, only 2 hails from the Telangana region. Besides Nageswara Rao, who represents the Khammam Lok Sabha seat, Rathod Ramesh represents Adilabad in the Telangana region.

The other MPs - Konakalla Narayana Rao (Machilipatnam), Nimmala Kistappa (Hindupur), Naramalli Sivaprasad (Chittoor) and Modugula Venugopala Reddy (Narasaraopet) - hail from the Seemandhra region. Therefore, it is not yet clear whether the decision has the support of these 4 MPs.

However, Nageshwara Rao insists that his party is not against Telangana.

Earlier, members of the Forum discussed ways to detach the "anti-Telangana" tag from the Telugu Desam Party's image. The members also discussed whether to go on an indefinite fast or take up a padayatra in the region in support of the statehood demand. The members also interacted with Chandrababu Naidu several times during the meeting.

Later, talking to media persons, Forum convenor Errabeli Dayakar Rao said that the Centre must not delay the formation of a Telangana state. He said that the TDP would not accept any changes in the demography of Telangana, and that the new state must consist of 10 districts, with Hyderabad as its capital.

Errabelli said Congress leaders must resign from their posts to create a constitutional crisis in the state in order to mount further pressure on the Centre to grant statehood for the region.

Senior TDP leader T Devender Goud said that Telangana is not a internal to the Congress. He said that the UPA government must respond quickly and resolve a matter that has been leading to unnecessary enmity between the people of 2 regions. (INN)