NEW DELHI: Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has convened an all-party meeting in New Delhi on December 28 to discuss the Telangana statehood issue. The move is essentially aimed at placating the seven Congress MPs from the region who were growing increasingly restive over the government's indecision on Telangana and had even threatened to boycott the FDI vote in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday to mark their protest.
The all-party meeting proved a successful trade-off, with all the seven MPs — Ponnam Prabhakar, G Vivekanad, Madhu Yaskhi Goud, S Rajaiah, M Jagannath, Rajgopal Reddy and G Sukhender Reddy — willingly voting with the government.
Encouraged by having got the government to agree to the all-party deliberations — the second in nearly two years, the first being when P Chidambaram met representatives of eight Andhra parties on January 6, 2011 — the MPs demanded that each party be represented by only one leader to present a united and final view.
Incidentally, the seven MPs from Telangana had, over the last couple of days, given the Congress leadership some anxious moments, especially when they put up a no-show at a floor coordination meeting called by the party on Tuesday.
Sensing portents of a rebellion, home minister and Leader of Lok Sabha Shinde as well as parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath had been working over the last couple of days to get the sulking MPs on board for the crucial vote.
The MPs kept up the pressure on the government by initially refusing to take Shinde and Nath's advice, and then failing to turn up for a floor coordination meeting called by the party. Some of the MPs even met TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday, adding to the Congress's worries.
The MPs insisted that the government give them a firm commitment on the all-party meeting before they commit on the FDI vote.At the last all-party meeting, the government had allowed parties to depute two representatives each to speak on the demand for separate Telangana state. This time, the Congress MPs from Andhra are said to have insisted on each party deputing only one leader to articulate the party's views on Telangana issue.
Congress ‘rebels’ force Telangana meet
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Congress ‘rebels’ force Telangana meet
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Congress ‘rebels’ force Telangana meet
