NEW DELHI: Concerned over the mass resignations by Telangana leaders, Union Minister and incharge of Congress affairs in Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi and conveyed to them the sentiments of the lawmakers from the region.The meeting came after Azad held parleys with a delegation of Telangana Congress leaders, including three ministers, a few MPs, an MLA and an MLC. After briefing Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister, Azad told reporters that the MLAs and MPs were “open to discussions” and felt the Centre should start discussions on the issue.Appreciating the sentiments of the lawmakers from the region, he said they were willing to be engaged in the process. “They told me that since the Centre did not take any decision, they were under pressure from people to resign. They are ready for dialogue,” he said. In the same breath, he pointed out that the Telangana demand was not a “time-bound” issue. He said much the same in an interview to a TV channel too.“We won’t jump straightaway to an all-party meeting, we will have to first talk to people of Andhra Pradesh and people of other political parties and different regions,” he said. Those agitating for a separate Telangana want some process to start and “this is the time we have to take a decision on this issue,” he conceded but made it pretty clear that the issue was “complex” and required “wider consultations.” Later in the day, the Telangana Congress leaders’ delegation comprising Minister K Jana Reddy and others met Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel at Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy’s residence. They also held talks with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee till late into the night. The lawmakers are believed to have told Mukherjee that they were ready for discussions with the high command. They are understood to have told him that their resignations were basically to convey the sentiments of the people to the Centre. A senior member of the delegation said they had told Azad that the Centre should immediately start the process of formation of a separate Telangana state. But under the circumstances, it is unlikely that the Congress top brass would do so, party sources said adding that arm-twisting will not work.
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