T: Both camps step up moves

Congress leaders intensify lobbying

State Congress leaders who reached Jaipur on Saturday to participate in the AICC session intensified their efforts to push their pro and antiTelangana demands according to their regional loyalties.

The leaders are expected to go to New Delhi from Jaipur for a final showdown on the issue as the Centre is expected to announce its decision on Telangana statehood on or before January 28.

A big contingent of Seemandhra as well as Telangana leaders, who are not AICC members, are directly reaching New Delhi by Monday to meet the high command and press their causes.

After the AICC meet the Congress brass is planning meetings to decide the party’s stand on Telangana

The CM and PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana, who are in Jaipur in connection with the Chitan Shivir, will also reach New Delhi by Monday for final consultations on the issue.

The appointment of Rahul Gandhi as party vice-president came in handy for the delegations of leaders from Telangana and Seemandhra as under the pretext of congratulating him, they made formal representations on their demands.

Sources said that soon after the Jaipur AICC session on Sunday, the Congress brass will have a series of meetings with the party core committee members and those involved in the decisionmaking process to finalise the party’s stand on Telangana. Seemandhra ministers who met at Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s residence on Saturday, decided to bring all leaders to New Delhi on January 21 to force their demand for a United Andhra Pradesh.

Congress MPs from Telangana have decided to stay put in Delhi till a final announcement on Telangana is made by the Centre.