Telangana Congress MPs not to resign now

HYDERABAD: After threatening to resign from their Lok Sabha seats if the Centre fails to introduce a Bill on separate Telangana in the next Parliament session, the Telangana Congress MPs, MLAs and other people's representatives made a U-turn and now decided to reiterate their loyalty to party president Sonia Gandhi instead.
Towards this, the T-leaders are planning to go to Delhi after the completion of the Rachchabanda programme on February 12 to impress upon the party chief that a Telangana state would alone prevent a repeat of the drubbing at last year's by-elections in which the ruling party had lost its deposits in most of the 12 constituencies it had contested.
"The idea behind the move is to reassure the party that the T Congress leaders will not go the TRS way in demanding separate T-state," party sources said. All ministers, MLAs and MPs and the office-bearers of PCC and DCCs are being mobilised for this exercise.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of senior T leaders including Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao and minister K Jana Reddy a couple of days ago. "We will not take any step that would work to the advantage of the opposition parties in the state. We will stand by the party and reiterate our resolve to achieve Telangana by persuading the party to honour its word given to the people of the region," said a senior MP from the region.
The change of heart is the result of home minister P Chidambaram's unwillingness to convene an all-party meet on Justice Srikrishna Committee recommendations.
According to sources, the T leaders have reportedly been cautioned against their resignation threats. "This forced the T leaders to seek a truce with the party high command and at the same time inform the leadership of the people's ire against the Congress government during the Rachchabanda programme in the region."
Most of the T Congress leaders are of the view that the party leadership is not at all bothered about their predicament. "The party is facing a credibility crisis in the region. While the people do not believe us in our constituencies, the high command is cool. As a result, we cannot take a militant stand nor we can we rollback our pledge to resign," an MP said.
But the idea of a mass surrender is not without its opposition. "This is not a good idea for the MPs and MLAs who took a stand that they would fight to the end for the cause of Telangana. How could one so brazenly disown the recent past?" an MP said, adding that it would not go down well with the people of the region.