New Delhi, July 30;The creation of a separate state of Telangana on Tuesday received the stamp of approval of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which unanimously endorsed the move.
“The UPA unanimously decided in favour of Telangana,” RLD leader and Union Minister Ajit Singh told reporters after a meeting of the constituents of the ruling coalition at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said there was a detailed discussion on the issue, and the UPA constituents were “absolutely unanimous” in endorsing the creation of Telangana.
He said if the Congress and BJP come together, there will be no problem in passing the Telangana statehood bill in Parliament.
Besides Mr Singh and Mr Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy attended the meet chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Union minister and former AICC in charge of Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad, present AICC in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh and political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel were also present in the meeting which lasted nearly one hour.
Earlier, amidst mounting pressure from both pro and anti-Telangana leaders, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The meeting came as leaders from both groups continued with their pressure tactics even as the leadership was veering towards a decision for creation of a separate state.
MPs and Union ministers from the Andhra region including HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju, JD Seelam, D Purandeshwari and Panabaka Laxmi met AICC general secretary in-charge for Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh to register their protest over creation of Telangana.
Celebrations break out in Telangana
Osmania University, the nerve centre of the Telangana agitation, burst into celebrations as students greeted each other, burst crackers and distributed sweets.
Activists of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) burst crackers and raised slogans at Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters in Hyderabad.
However, TRS leaders were cautious in their reaction. TRS legislator K. Taraka Rama Rao said the real celebrations would take place only when the Telangana bill is passed in parliament
There were also celebrations by Congress activists in Telangana. Raising slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’, they exploded crackers and distributed sweets in Hyderabad and in nine other districts of the region.
