Telangana Congress leaders develop cold feet

HYDERABAD:  The Dutch courage shown by Telangana Congress leaders seems to have fizzled out in no time. Though 10 MPs and 44 legislators, including 12 ministers, resigned on July 4 to press for a separate State, only 19 of them attended a meeting convened by senior leaders K Jana Reddy and K Keshava Rao at the Nampally exhibition grounds here on Monday.Of the 19, seven were MPs, three ministers and nine MLAs. It’s learnt that back-channel talks initiated by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha, MP T Subbirami Reddy and former union minister Renuka Chowdary to persuade their colleagues from Telangana, who have resigned, has had the desired effect. The trio, sources said, were busy cajoling the party’s T leaders to have one-on-one meetings with them.The Chief Minister is said to be trying hard to convince his Cabinet colleagues from Telangana not to act in haste. He has reportedly urged them not to plunge headlong into the T stir and maintain distance from other T leaders at least until the Centre takes a decision on the contentious issue.On the other hand, Damodar Rajanarsimha, a Dalit, invited MLAs belonging to his community for lunch and reportedly talked them out of  attending the meeting held by Keshava Rao and Jana Reddy.Subbirami Reddy has also reportedly contacted MPs Manda Jagannadham, P Balram Naik, S Rajaiah, Ponnam Prabhakar and MLAs A Mohan, Praveen Reddy, Athram Sakku, R Kanta Rao and Abraham. PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana has convened a meeting with the party’s Telangana leaders who have resigned at the Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday. Asked about the reasons for the thin attendance, Jana Reddy and others claimed they were all united and would not succumb to inducements.Besides Jana Reddy, two other ministers B Saraiah and K Venkata Reddy, MPs K Keshava Rao, G Sukhender Reddy, M Jagannadham, G Vivek, Madhu Yashki Goud, K Rajagopal Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar and legislators Ch Muthyam Reddy, R Damodar Reddy, S Satyanarayana, J Krishna Rao, Bikshamaiah Goud, T Rajaiah, Athram Sakku, Balu Naik and Ch Lingaiah attended the meeting.Eight MLCs also made it to the exhibition grounds.Speaking to reporters, Jana Reddy condemned reports that they were going to float a separate political outfit. “We will not leave the party, but will strive to convince the Congress central leadership through Gandhian means and in a democratic way. We have no intention of destabilising the Congress government in the state,” he asserted.In all, there are 15 ministers, 40 MLAs, 12 Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha MPs from the region.