Cong ministers return a setback to Telangana

News pulse, Politics | admin | August 16, 2011 at 6:01 pm

The Telangana movement received a setback on Tuesday, as 10 Congress ministers who had resigned to push the statehood demand, returned to their posts. On Tuesday, nine Telangana ministers attended the cabinet meeting called by chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy at his camp office at Begumpet. On July 4, 47 Congress legislators, including 11 ministers, had resigned. So did 11 parliamentarians, including one from the Rajya Sabha. All the resignations were rejected on technical grounds.

With the ministers back to work, the MLAs and MPs will get back into action. Their capitulation has also divided the Telangana Congress steering committee, the nodal body for the movement. It is also a setback for Telangana Joint Action Committee, which had warned the ministers against attending office.

“The fact that the ministers had attended the cabinet meeting showed they had resumed their duties. So the Telangana ministers are deemed to have withdrawn their resignations,” said former Congress minister Jupali Krishna Rao.

Reddy, who had been unable to hold a cabinet meeting since June 16 — and many files were pending due to the absence of the ministers — was wooing these ministers to come back.

But what made the ministers to decide to return was the realisation that the Congress high command was in no hurry to take a call on Telangana.

“Congress in-charge for the state Ghulam Nabi Azad told us that he needed two months to discuss the matter with all the parties concerned,” said a minister who attended the meeting. “Also, we do not expect a decision on such an important issue when party chief Sonia Gandhi is out of the country.”

Minister for handloom and textiles P Shankar Rao could not attend the meeting due to an eye infection. Minister for infrastructure and investment Komtireddy Venkat Reddy, known for close link with Jagan Mohan Reddy, refused to budge from his stand.

“We did not break our word. We are only following the footsteps of the ministers,” said an MLA who refused to be named.

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