Congress leaders seek bill for statehood to Telangana

The leaders including some MPs and Andhra Pradesh cabinet ministers from Telangana region held a meeting here to review the latest situation in the wake of last week's all-party meeting on the issue.

The meeting passed a resolution, demanding Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) central government table a bill in Parliament.

Senior leader and Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy will be leaving for the national capital later in the day to submit the resolution to party president Sonia Gandhi.

He told reporters that the meeting demanded that the central government resolve the issue as early as possible to fulfill the aspirations of Telangana people. "No alternative to formation of Telangana state will be acceptable to us," he said.

"A decision should be taken at the earliest as further delay will only affect the development," Jana Reddy added.

The Congress leaders from the region will visit Delhi on Jan 10 to meet party's central leaders. They also decided to hold another meeting by Jan 18.

At the Dec 28 all-party meeting in New Delhi, union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said the government would come out with a solution to the problem in a month.

Gandhi had Thursday review the vexed issue with senior leaders in Delhi. She held three separate meetings with senior leaders including Shinde, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the party in-charge for the state, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and her political secretary Ahmed Patel.