From the States : Andhra Pradesh

BJP will make Telangana a reality:
Rajnath Singh
From Our Correspondent

Bringing the Telangana statehood movement to the fore the BJP President Shri Rajnath Singh has promised to create a new state “within four months” if the NDA is voted to power at the Centre in the next Lok Sabha polls. He was addressing a mammoth public rally in Mahbubnagar on June 2. He said, “We will invite the pro-Telangana parties into the NDA fold. If necessary, we will make the support for Telangana a pre-condition for parties to join the NDA.

Declaring an unequivocal support for Telangana state, Shri Singh dared the UPA government to introduce a Bill in Parliament for carving out Telangana state. This assertion comes close to the heels of his party’s support for separate Telangana state in the just concluded meeting of the national executive.

Besides Shri Rajanth Singh, senior leaders Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Shri Bangaru Lakshman, Shri Prakash Javedekar and state BJP president Shri N Indrasena Reddy addressed the ‘Telangana Betrayal Day’ rally.

The rally, held at the Government Junior College ground, was meant to “expose the cheating by Congress and its pre-poll ally Telangana Rashtra Samiti” and explain to the people how the two parties were now backtracking on their pre-poll promise of statehood for Telangana, Shri Rajnath Singh said.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu said “We are committed to Telangana cause. Let the UPA government introduce a bill if it has the will,” said that Telangana state would become a reality only when BJP was given another opportunity to lead the coalition government at the Centre.

Shri Rajnath Singh, Shri Naidu and other leaders alleged that Congress had repeatedly “betrayed” the people of the region. Making it clear that the BJP was in favour of smaller states for better governance and meeting local aspirations, Shri Rajnath Singh pointed out that it was during the NDA regime that the new states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal — were created. The party leaders argued that the Mahbubnagar meeting would help send a strong signal to the people of the region that BJP would be in the forefront of the statehood movement