Congress summons Telangana MPs to Delhi
By IANSTuesday, January 4, 2011
HYDERABAD - Two days before the Srikrishna committee’s report on Telangana is to be made public, the Congress leadership has summoned all its MPs from the region to Delhi.
The MPs from Telangana have been asked to be in the capital by 1 p.m. Wednesday. Party leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet with them, party sources said here Tuesday.
The meeting assumes significance as it comes a day before the all-party meeting called by Home Minister P. Chidambaram on the report. The report, submitted by the five-member panel Dec 30, will be made public after the meeting.
Some Congress MPs from Telangana have threatened to quit if the report does not recommend the formation of a separate Telangana state.
They have said they would not hesitate to resign and join the movement for a separate state.
Mukherjee is expected to advise Telangana MPs to exercise restraint and not to take any hasty step that could create problems for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Of 17 Lok Sabha members from Telangana, 12 belong to the Congress.
A section of MPs has urged the party not to send any representative to Wednesday’s all-party meeting saying it would serve no purpose.
State Congress chief D. Srinivas and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy are also leaving for New Delhi for talks with the central leaders ahead of the Srikrishna committee’s report.
