On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders launched a three-day hunger strike with "Telangana Poru Deeksha" as their slogan, demanding the introduction of a Telangana bill in the Parliament.
Referring to the hunger strike camp, former BJP president Rajnath Singh said that his party was committed to the formation of a Telangana state, and insisted that the Centre respect the sentiments of people in the region. He declared that the party would not renege on its promise of Telangana this time.
State BJP president G Kishan Reddy said that despite the opposition from the CPI (M), the Telugu Desam Party and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the BJP would ensure that the Telangana bill gets passed, if introduced in Parliament.
He said that the Congress would be wiped out from the Telangana region if it fails to achieve statehood for Telangana before 2014.
Kishan Reddy also demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for not honouring the announcement on the formation of a Telangana state made by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram, on December 9, 2009. He also appealed to the people of the Seemandhra region to agree to the bifurcation, and to separate as "two brothers".
Telangana Political Joint Action Committee chairman M Kodandaram demanded that the Centre announce the formation of Telangana before the Biodiversity Conference to be held in Hyderabad during October. He also appealed to the people to ensure the success of the Telangana March that was proposed to be held on September 30.
Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, former TNGO former president Swamy Goud, and other leaders from pro-Telangana groups, participated in the BJP Deeksha. (INN)