The Hindu : Front Page : Telugu Desam too may stay away from Delhi meeting

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Wednesday, Jan 05, 2011
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Telugu Desam too may stay away from Delhi meeting

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: After TRS and BJP, Telugu Desam too may stay away from the all-party meeting called by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss Srikrishna Committee report in New Delhi on January 6.

Though an official announcement was expected on Tuesday in the names of Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and Revuri Prakash Reddy who represented Andhra/Rayalaseema and Telangana regions in earlier meetings in Delhi, the leadership held it back till Wednesday, as it was preoccupied with the issue of senior MLA, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, quitting the party and a few others following suit.

It was also postponed so as not to give the impression that the decision not to attend the meeting was taken under pressure from Telangana MLAs. In fact, party president N. Chandrababu Naidu held confabulations with party senior leaders both from Telangana and Andhra/Rayalaseema for the second day on Tuesday to weigh the options and also to discuss Mr. Srinivas Reddy's resignation.

Leaders from both regions reportedly told Mr. Naidu that it would be better to skip the Delhi meeting instead of sending two delegations from the two regions and confusing the cadre and sending wrong signals to the people, as was the case earlier. If the party stayed away, it could even corner the Congress to make its stand clear. Till now Congress kept blaming the TDP and other parties for coming up with divergent views and not facilitating a consensus.

Senior leaders feel the party should not get caught in the Congress strategy of remaining silent and allowing others to speak on their stand. By staying away from the meeting, it would deny this leverage to Congress besides pacifying sections within the party critical of the TDP president's “two regions are like my two eyes” policy.

PR to attend

Praja Rajyam, on the other hand, has decided to send its senior leaders C. Ramachandraiah and K. Vidyadhara Rao to the meeting.

The decision was taken by party president K. Chiranjeevi here on Tuesday in consultation with the political affairs committee and other senior leaders.

Mr. Chiranjeevi and Ramachandraiah represented the party in the all-party meeting convened by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on January 5 last year after the formation of Srikrishna Committee.

Mr. Chiranjeevi was said to have decided to keep himself away from the meeting this time as it was being convened only to hand over the committee's report.

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