Congress MPs from Telangana hopeful of Centre favouring new state

While welcoming the outcome of the all-party meeting on Telangana, Congress MPs from the region have expressed confident that the Centre would take a favourable decision in carving out a separate state in a month's time.

The seven MPs, who lobbied strongly with the Congress leadership for the all-party meet, told reporters in New Delhi that Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, during the meeting, spoke in favour of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

They also claimed that barring the YSR Congress party, all parties spoke in favour of a separate Telangana state. "YSR Congress has shown its true colours," said Madhu Yaskhi Goud, one of the Congress MPs. He called on the people of Telangana not to allow any YSR party leader to take out any yatra in the region.

Hailing the decision of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to back the demand for carving out the state of Telangana, they asked TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu not to stall the formation of a new state this time round.

While advising Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao to withdraw the Telangana shutdown call on Saturday, they said TRS should not give an opportunity to anti-social elements to create trouble.