'Congress incapable of solving Telangana crisis'

Express News Service
Last Updated : 30 May 2011 11:42:58 AM IST

HYDERABAD: “If you are capable of taking a decision, take it. If not, admit it,” Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu told the Congress high command on the contentious Telangana statehood demand.

“The Congress is in power. If it is capable of clearing the uncertainty in the state, let it do it but why criticise the TDP?” Naidu said while speaking on the last day of the party’s Mahanadu here on Sunday.

Terming Telangana as a sensitive issue, he called upon party workers from the region to give it back if attacked politically by the TRS. He also advised them to explain the actual situation to the thinkers and students from the region. Instead of taking a decision, the Congress was trying to blame the TDP, he alleged.

“The TDP flag sheltered backward classes and weaker sections. When the BJP, Congress and TRS are taking up programmes with their identity and party flags, why not the TDP?” Naidu wondered. The party’s political resolution said that the Congress never stated its stance on Telangana. The late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy too did not provide clarity but created a rift among the regions for his political expediency.

Seconding the political resolution, Telangana Telugu Desam Forum (TTDF) convenor E Dayakar Rao asked TJAC chairman M Kodandaram why he did not question the TRS for obstructing TTDF meetings. “We are fighting for Telangana. Why is the TRS creating obstacles?” he wondered. If TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao was sincere, he should question AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Dayakar Rao said.

Dayakar Rao said that they had the blessings of Naidu for taking up T-agitation. “Some leaders like P Keshav are objecting to our fight. But the Andhra TDP leaders too understand our feelings and support us,” Dayakar Rao said. No Andhra leader including Naidu raised any objection to Dayakar Rao’s remarks. While many Telangana delegates clapped in support of Dayakar Rao, those from Andhra and Rayalaseema remained silent. On the demand from some quarters that TDP should make its stand clear on the Telangana issue, Dayakar Rao pointed out that the Politburo had adopted a resolution on the issue long ago. “The party has not withdrawn the resolution. Seeking a fresh resolution from the TDP is nothing but stupidity,” he remarked.

“Let all thinkers, students and other sections of people join TDP’s fight for Telangana. The TDP is capable of securing statehood for the region within a year,” Rao said and asserted that the party would display its flag at all regional meetings.

On the TRS-TDP alliance in 2004, Rao said his party suffered a lot on account of it. “TDP allotted 46 seats to TRS which sold the tickets to Congressmen and defeated the TDP,” he alleged. Opposing alliances with the TRS and the BJP, he said the TDP should sail with the Left.