New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday held discussions on
the contentious Telangana demand and on resignation of party
MPs from the region ahead of Parliament`s monsoon session.
Sources said Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi
Azad has been asked to hold fresh talks with party MPs, who
have tendered their resignation to the Speaker resenting the
delay in the formation of a separate state.
The hour-long meeting was attended by members of the
Congress Core Group including Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Gandhi`s political
secretary Ahmed Patel.
Meanwhile, Azad met a delegation of lawmakers from
Telangana who made it clear that they will not withdraw their
resignations unless the Centre comes out with a positive
decision on the statehood demand.
Congress MP M Jaganath told PTI after the meeting that
Azad asked them to give their viewpoints about the statehood
demand in writing so that he can discuss them with their
counterparts from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions of
AP.
"We will again meet him on Monday. We will give our
demands in writing. But nothing short of a Telangana state is
acceptable to us," he said.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers took objection to Azad`s
remarks last night that his main concern is, apart from the
resignation of so many Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh is
that the state should not suffer any more because of this
issue.
PTI
