Congress turns heat on its T-MLAs

Telangana Congress MLAs will meet on January 21 to decide on the withdrawal of resignations in the wake of the Congress high command sending a stern message on the issue.

Ministers, MPs and MLAs have decided to abide by the diktats of the high command but also decided to continue to bring pressure on the leadership for the formation of Telangana.

On Monday evening, Mr Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of party affairs in the state, called the PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, and enquired about the withdrawals of resignations by the MLAs.

Mr Srinivas then convened an emergency meeting with the available party MLAs that was attended by the former ministers, Mr K. Jana Reddy and Mr R. Damodar Reddy. He reportedly told them about the “seriousness” of the message he received from the high command.

After the discussion both the former ministers came out of the meeting and announced that a meeting would be held on January 21 to decide on the withdrawal of resignations.

Earlier, after the Cabinet meeting in the afternoon, the higher education minister, Mr D. Sridhar Babu, said it was not fair of the Telangana Joint Action Committee to fix deadlines and expressed the hope that the Congress high command will look into all aspects of the issue.

Ministers and MPs from Telangana are planning to go to Delhi together to request party leaders to announce a time frame for addressing the issue.

Meanwhile, the Assembly Speaker, Mr N. Kirankumar Reddy, has reportedly decided to have a one-on-one meeting with MLAs who submitted their resignations to ascertain the circumstances that led to the act.

The Speaker decided to hasten the process of with the government planning the Budget Session of the House in the second week of February.