Telangana statehood row: Chandrababu Naidu meets President Mukherjee, BJP chief

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu met President Pranab Mukherjee here on Saturday and requested him to intervene to find a cordial solution to the division of Andhra Pradesh and formation of a separate Telangana state.

"The head of the Constitution is the President of India, we requested him to intervene. The Government of India has failed totally and also the Congress Party wants to take political advantage out of it which is not fair. Anything you have to do should be in the interest of society; the Government of India has failed," he said.

Naidu said the Congress Party wants to take advantage. .

"So, it is right time the President of India should intervene and settle the issue. For that, we requested him to call both the sides Joint Action Committees and also civil society organisations and also stakeholders," said Naidu.

"He (the President) has listened. We have given a memorandum and we are confident he will take some action," he added.

Naidu, who also met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh to convey his concerns in this regard, said the people are agitating in both the areas of Andhra and Telangana.

"The Congress Party wants to take political advantage. Same day same platform, when they announced the Telangana decision, the same day they announced TRS is going to merge with Congress. So many times, the YSR Congress and also the Congress Party made similar statements," he added.

Naidu further alleged that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has also treated the Telangana statehood issue to be an internal affair of the Congress Party.

"We requested the Prime Minister so many times. Twice, I wrote a letter (to the Prime Minister), but no action has been taken," he said.

Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh said the BJP's stand on the formation of a separate Telangana state is unaltered.

"A TDP delegation led by Chandrababu Naidu today met me after meeting the President of India. They gave detailed information about the latest developments in Andhra and Telangana. They told how the Congress-led UPA Government has played a cruel joke on Andhra and Telangana," he said.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had earlier said that the process for the formation of the new state of Telangana would take about five to six months as per constitutional norms.

"The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has passed a resolution and further procedure will be done according to the Constitution of India. Telangana will be formed by following all the procedures and it would take five to six months," he said.

He also added that Telangana was being formed because it was the oldest issue and the people of that region have been agitating and demanding the formation of a separate state since 1956.