Having failed to mount pressure on the Centre on Telangana statehood through the Sakala Janula Samme, local leaders have now started heading to the national capital.
Accompanied with a delegation of about 30 leaders, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao reached New Delhi on Friday.
Besides meeting President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj on Saturday, KCR will also meet other national leaders, seeking their support for a separate Telangana state.
Talking to reporters before leaving for Delhi, KCR alleged that the state government had hatched a conspiracy to incite violence in the general strike, which he claimed was peaceful for the last 18 days.
He alleged that the government was adopting coercive methods and resorting to illegal arrests to end the strike.
Telangana Political Joint Action Committee chairman Prof. M Kodandaram, along with his team, will also leave for Delhi on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders from Telangana, who are already camping in the national capital, are likely to announce their future course of action on Saturday. They had earlier set 30 September as the "deadline" for the Congress high command to announce its decision on Telangana.
However, except for a
cliched press briefing by Home Minister P Chidambaram, there has been no major announcement from the Congress or the UPA government.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad submitted a 48-page report on the issue to Sonia Gandhi, and this was discussed in the meeting of Congress Working Committee held at the Prime Minister's residence on Friday night.
Therefore, it is being predicted that Telangana leaders will now raise the political temperature in the national capital on Saturday. (INN)