Telangana did not figure in talks with Prez, clarifies Shinde

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday clarified that there were no plans to hold an all-party meeting on the separate Telangana issue in near future.

Talking to reporters after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee, Shinde said that the issue of Telangana was not being discussed by the Centre at this moment. Therefore, there was no possibility of conducting an all-party meet in near future. He said he briefed the President about the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir where he made a visit recently. He said there was absolutely no talk on the Telangana issue with the President.

Earlier, as soon as Shinde started for Rashtrapati Bhavan, there were speculations that he would be discussing the Telangana issue with the President. The speculations were primarily based on the fact that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy met Central leaders in New Delhi a day before and on Thursday morning former PCC president D Srinivas met Sonia Gandhi in the National Capital.

However, a few minutes later Shinde himself clarified that Telangana did not figure in the discussions with the President.