BJP only party which consistently backed creation of Telangana, claims Nirmala Sitharaman

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed on Sunday that it was the only political party which gave full support to creating Telangana right from 1997.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said that her party has been firm and consistent in its stand throughout the movement to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

"Right from 1997, when the BJP passed its resolution to support the creation of Telangana, we have been the sole political party to have backed the decision consistently.

... The Congress party's stance on Telangana was not clear from before. The statement by the then-Home Minister P. Chidambaram in December 2009 which confirmed support to create Telangana had to be withdrawn within 10 days. We still feel that the Congress is taking this decision because of their greed to gather votes," Sitharaman said here today.

Sitharaman added that there was no guarantee that the Congress would go ahead and actually create Telangana, saying that the BJP assures maintaining its long promise that the new state would be created.

She also urged the Congress to bring forth the Telangana Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, and said that it would have the support of the BJP.

The decision to break up Andhra Pradesh and establish Telangana comes ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Telangana supporters demanded a separate state on the grounds that economic development has been neglected in their regions in favour of the more affluent Andhra region.

On July 30, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had announced their decision to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament will begin on August 5.