OU JAC Threatens MLAs, MPs

With the 28th January deadline that it has set for a declaration of a firm timeframe for the creation of Telangana by the Union Government fast approaching, the Osmania University students' JAC tried to up the ante today by saying that all MLAs and MPs of Telangana should resign if that doesn't happen, and that it will hang boards outside their homes proclaiming them as Telangana traitors if they do not.

It has also said that all those who do resign will be re-elected by a huge margin.

The Telangana MP Forum Convenor Ponnam Prabhakar said that if the Centre announces that there will be no Telangana, all Congress MPs will resign immediately. He added that they were ready to make any sacrifices for a separate state.

Voices trying to be heard in the clamour included that of prominent Congress leader K Kesava Rao, who said that it is cruel on the part of the state government not to cancel cases against protesting students even after the Home Minister Chidambaram said that they should be closed. He said that Maoists are not linked to the Telangana agitation, since if they did participate, the 3 bandhs so far would not have been as peaceful as they were.

Nagan Janardhana Reddy similarly said that if the state government takes any action against government employees who boycotted work to participate in the Telangana struggle, it will aggravate things.

5 lawyers started a fast-to-death yesterday for separate statehood for Telangana, and today KCR and Vijayasanthi expressed solidarity with them. KCR said, too, that all MLAs and MPs from Telangana should resign immediately. T Harish Rao, another prominent leader of the TRS, said that it was not the Seemandhra people who were against separate statehood for Telangana, but Seemandhra leaders.

Routine agitations continued in the Telangana regions, including fasts and rallies. BJP workers, buoyed by the visit of Sushma Swaraj yesterday, are planning to get her to tour the region, and also address a massive meeting in Warangal.