Andhra Pradesh   

BJP plans round table meet on Telangana issue

Staff Reporter

Move to garner public opinion; some leaders oppose party stand

VIJAYAWADA: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which considers itself a disciplined cadre-based political organisation, had to witness a strange situation here on Saturday when a section of its leaders from coastal Andhra region openly opposed the party's stand on separate Telangana.

The BJP decided to convene a round table on April 12, again in Vijayawada, with leaders and the elite in coastal Andhra region to garner public opinion in support of the theme `Smaller States and development of Andhra region'.

A few senior functionaries of the party entered into a wordy duel outside the State Guesthouse where the State unit president of the BJP N. Indrasena Reddy conducted a press conference.

Mr. Reddy conducted a meet of senior leaders of the party from coastal Andhra region to explain to them the party stand. Mr. Reddy told the workers that the party could not espouse the separate Telangana cause though it had been in favour of smaller States owing to its political alliance with the TDP.

Party activists voiced their opinion notwithstanding the presence of leaders like Kambhampati Haribabu, P.V.Chalapathi Rao and party ideologue S.V. Seshagiri Rao.

State committee member and former city president M.D.Rama Rao said the BJP, which was now taking credit for forming three States, had not done anything for separate Telangana when it was in power. The party would lose its credibility if it suddenly changed the stance.

Vested interests blamed

Mr. Rama Rao said that there had been a lot of change in the State in the last three and a half decades.

Many families from coastal Andhra went to Telangana in search of livelihood and settled down there.

Though the settlers may claim to be locals, there would be no protection for their properties or lives if separate Telangana was created, he said.

Mr. Rama Rao categorically stated that some vested interests were trying to divide the State in the garb of development and it was an unwelcome move.

However, Mr. Reddy told The Hindu after the protracted deliberations at Chamber of Commerce hall that there were no differences among the party leaders over the issue.

Regional-level meeting to explain the benefits of smaller States to the leaders of the party would be conducted even in Rayalaseema, he said.

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