Naidu feels Congress creating Telangana hype

HYDERABAD: Amid the ongoing hullabaloo over Telangana issue at the Congress high command level, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to have predicted that the AICC top brass would not take any decision on the issue.

He is believed to be of the opinion that the Congress-led UPA government has no clarity on the state's bifurcation.

The TDP chief, who came back to Hyderabad after participating in the Third Front's protest programme during Bharat bandh on Thursday in Delhi, had an interaction with his party MLAs on the Assembly premises.

According to the sources, the TDP chief told his MLAs that the Congress had no sincerity to resolve Telangana issue. He suspected that the Centre would continue its dillydallying tactics for some more months.

'The Congress and TRS are creating unnecessary hype over the consultations in Delhi,' Naidu was quoted as saying.

However, TDP MLA P Keshav took a contrary view and suspected that the creation of a Telangana state was inevitable. Kesav said that the AICC leadership might take a decision on the issue in the coming days.

On the other hand, TDP Telangana MLA A Revanth Reddy did not have any confidence that the Centre was in favour of creation of a Telangana state.

'If the Centre really wants to create a separate Telangana state, they should hold talks with leaders of the costal and Rayalaseema regions. Instead, why did they invite TRS chief Rao?' Reddy questioned.

Meanwhile, the TDP leadership reportedly said that the Congress-led UPA government would continue till 2014 elections and there was no immediate threat to it.

TDP MLAs opined that if the Parliament and Assembly will have separate elections, it would be advantageous to the TDP in the state. The TDP president deferred to the MLAs opinion.

'Nearly 40 MPs of other parties are ready to support the UPA government even if the Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party withdraw support to it,' TDP chief said.

He said the UPA's popularity is waning because of the series of scams taht occurred in the past few months, and on the other hand, the BJP-led NDA has failed to capitalise on the situation because of its organisational weakness.

He said that there was bright future for the Third Front at the Centre. He hoped that new political polarisation would take place at the national level that would strengthen the third front.

The TDP chief is pursing plans to finalise his Maha Padayatra that would start from October 2. The party sources said Naidu has been discussing proposals with party leaders to finalise the route map for his Yatra.

One of the party leaders said that the TDP would give clarity on several issues including Padayatra in its extended state executive committee meeting, scheduled to be held on September 24.