PM, Cong brass assure non-Telangana MPs

Swinging into action to defuse the rebellion in the Congress party, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress brass today assured MPs that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in no hurry to form a separate Telangana state.

Agitating MPs from non-Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh have been assured there will be a pause until a consensus is reached among different political parties.

As more than 100 Congress MLAs have ‘resigned’ from the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and a few MPs are contemplating resignation, the prime minister gave a patient hearing to the anti-Telangana MPs this morning. He told the gathering: “We will definitely keep all sentiments in mind.” He also assured that “the government will not take any decision in haste”.

Later, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel held more meetings with the non-Telangana MPs. Mukherjee told the group, “...the government will not do anything until a consensus is reached among various parties.”

Meanwhile, the process of building a consensus on Telangana has received a jolt, as Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party has taken a U-turn, although it supported the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s demand for a separate state during the Lok Sabha polls. Home Minister P Chidambaram also questioned the MLAs’ move to resign. “Why these MLAs are resigning now?” He even told the MPs that the legislators are “overreacting” to this situation and said bluntly: “The government is not doing anything tomorrow. There is still a long way to go”.

The senior ministers tried to reassure the Andhra Pradesh MPs, many of whom are worried about the situation they will face when they return to their constituencies this weekend. Minister of State Defence, M Pallam Raju, told the prime minister: “It has become very difficult for us to go back to our constituency. We may have to face hostile voters. Law and order may also become a major problem in non-Telangana areas.”