TDP deputes Yanamala, Revuri to present its view

VV Balakrishna
First Published : 05 Jan 2010 03:01:00 AM IST
Last Updated :

HYDERABAD: The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has deputed Narasampet MLA Revuri Prakash Reddy and former Assembly speaker Yanamala Ramakrishnudu for the all-party meeting convened by the Centre on the Telangana issue in Delhi on Tuesday.

Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, after consulting party’s senior leaders from Telangana and Andhra regions, cleared their names.

According to sources, the TDP will not deviate from its pro-Telangana stand. Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, who belongs to the Andhra region, is unlikley to press for a United Andhra and more likely to blame the Congress for the unrest in the State.

The party’s line of argument is going to be that Chidambaram’s Dec 9 statement is responsible for the political crisis gripping the State and the Congress, being the ‘‘culprit,’’ should resolve the issue. Party leaders hope that this way, the party will get a clean image while putting the onus on the Congress.

As for its own stand on the Telangana issue, the TDP will more or less adopt the same policy as the Congress.

‘‘We will ask the Congress to speak first tomorrow. The same stand will be followed by the TDP,’’ a party senior told Express.

According to sources, Revuri Prakash Reddy will press for a separate Telangana and demand that the Centre expedite the process for its creation. A TDP Telangana leader said the party would present its pro- Telangana stand at the Delhi meet.

Several leaders from Andhra were part of the core committee and politburo, when the party took a pro-Telangana stand, he pointed out.

Ramakrishnudu, however, did not spell out what his assignment would be in Delhi tomorrow and left without speaking to mediapersons. “I will speak to you after the talks in Delhi tomorrow,” he said.

Prakash Reddy is a former House Committee chairman on GO 610. As the Congress representative from Telangana N Uttam Kumar Reddy too had worked as chairman of the House Committee on GO 610, the TDP decided to depute a leader with a similar background. Reddy had also submitted his resignation as an MLA, immediately after the second statement of Chidambaram.