Cong leaders to suspend agitation

Congress leaders from Telangana are said to have decided in principle to suspend their Telangana agitation as the Centre is set to announce a high-level committee next week. The Congress legislators will meet on Saturday to formally endorse the proposal to suspend the agitation “for the time being,” a senior leader said.

According to him, following the clarification given by Union home minister P Chidambaram on the proposed committee and the meeting the Telangana Congress leaders had with Sonia Gandhi, they have decided to ask legislators to withdraw their resignation letters submitted to the Speaker.   They will also not join the agitational program to be taken up by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC). “But we will not quit the JAC,” he said. Sonia Gandhi had advised four Telangana leaders, who met her on Thursday, to work for the restoration of normalcy in the state by withdrawing the resignations, he said.
The Congress leader said that Sonia delivered the message at a special meeting where four Telangana leaders K Jana Reddy, R Damodar Reddy, K R Amos and Baswaraj Saraiah were present. These leaders were taken to 10 Janpath by party president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, in a special car to avoid the media glare. At this meeting, Sonia specifically asked them to tell all the MLAs to withdraw their resignations since the issue was under the consideration of the Centre.
According to a member of the team, Sonia said the restoration of normalcy and withdrawal of resignations were necessary to create favourable atmosphere for a negotiated settlement of the Telangana issue.
Jana Reddy, Damodar Reddy and Sariah will convey this to the MLAs at Saturday’s meeting. Jana Reddy met PCC president D Srinivas on Friday and briefed him on the developments. “We will discuss the next course of action at tomorrow’s meeting,” Jana Reddy told media.
Senior leader and MLC K R Amos said, “there is no need for resignations and deadlines as a committee is expected to be announced in a week’s time. So, it is the responsibility of the Congress leaders to see that the committee submits its report in a specific time frame,” he told TOI. Meanwhile, IT minister K Venkat Reddy’s car was stopped by Telangana agitators in Nalgonda town demanding that he press for acceptance of the resignations.