TDP to support Telangana Bill: Nama

The Telugu Desam Party has announced that it would support the Telangana Bill when it is introduced in the Parliament.

Talking to reporters after attending the meeting of Telangana TDP Forum held at Telugu Desam Legislature Party office here on Saturday, TDP Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageshwara Rao said that the TDP would be the first party to support the Telangana Bill, whenever it is introduced in the Parliament. However, he did not specify whether this decision has been approved by the party president N Chandrababu Naidu.

It may be mentioned that of six Lok Sabha MPs the party has, only two hails from Telangana region. Besides Nageshwara Rao who represents Khammam Lok Sabha seat, Rathod Ramesh represents Adilabad in the Telangana region. The other MPs - Konakalla Narayana Rao (Machilipatnam), Nimmala Kistappa (Hindupur), Naramalli Sivaprasad (Chittoor) and Modugula Venugopala Reddy (Narasaraopet) hail from Seemandhra region. Therefore, it is not yet clear whether the decision had the support of these four MPs. However, Nageshwara Rao tried to give a message that his party was not against Telangana.

Earlier, the Forum members discussed the strategy to detach the tag of anti-Telangana from the Telugu Desam Party. The members also discussed whether to go on an indefinite fast or take up padayatra in the region in support of statehood demand. The members also interacted with Chandrababu Naidu several times during the meeting.

Later talking to media persons, Forum convenor Errabeli Dayakar Rao said that the Centre must not delay the formation of Telangana State. He said that the TDP would not accept any changes in the demography of Telangana State and it should be of 10 districts with Hyderabad as its capital. He asked the Congress leaders to resign to their posts to create constitutional crisis in the State in order to mount further pressure on the Centre to grant statehood for the region.

Senior TDP leader T Devender Goud said that the Telangana was not an internal matter of the Congress party which could be resolved by the Congress High Command. He said that the UPA Government should respond quickly and resolve the matter which has been leading to unnecessary enmity between the people of two regions.