Congress playing politics over Telangana: Naidu

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu Monday accused the Congress party of playing politics as he began an indefinite fast in the capital against the government's proposal to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana.

"Congress party is playing total politics," the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister said at a press conference here.

"From 8.30 a.m. onwards, I am on an indefinite fast. The reason is that Andhra Pradesh, specially Seemandhara, is burning for the last 70 days. Day by day, things are becoming worse," he said.

"We have tried our best to bring this to the notice of the government of India. In parliament, we raised it. I came to Delhi and met the president and various political leaders. As of today, no action has been taken...no initiative to call stakeholders of both sides to discuss the issue," he said.

Naidu said: "Democracy means if there are problems, they have to be debated, discussed and there must be some deliberations and ultimately they have to find some solutions."

"Ruling Congress party has forgotten all these things. They are not finding any solutions. On the other hand they are creating problems," he said, adding that people in Andhra Pradesh are losing confidence in the political system.

Earlier Sunday, in coastal Andhra and the Rayalaseema regions of the state, several towns and hundreds of villages plunged into darkness, and several trains were cancelled as electricity employees launched an indefinite strike to protest against the decision to carve out the separate state.