The en masse resignations by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members in Parliament and the Assembly is generating a lot of heat in other political parties in Andhra Pradesh, including the ruling Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). For the first time, the Telangana leaders in TDP have raised their voice openly against their party?s stand, demanding separate statehood.

Devender Goud of TDP, a staunch leader from the Telangana region and former home minister, said he was restrained from making a statement in favour of separate statehood due to his party stand, but added that the Congress had deceived the people of Telangana as it had won the 2004 elections promising separate statehood. ??Both Congress and TRS have cheated the people of Telangana as they together contested the 2004 elections and won promising a separate state. If TRS comes out of the alliance now, it cannot wash away its false promise,?? Goud said.

Another TDP leader and former minister, K Srihari, said, ??It is an appropriate time for the party to make its stand clear on separate statehood to Telangana. If it fails now, it will have to face a bitter experience in the forthcoming elections.?? Elections in Andhra Pradesh are due next year.

Senior Congress leaders from Telangana have also been raising the issue for quite some time now and have even dared the central leadership with resignations. They decided to go ahead on their own campaign plan, which was withdrawn in view of party president Sonia Gandhi?s visit to Hyderabad to inaugurate the international airport. These leaders were hopeful that Sonia Gandhi would utilise this opportunity to make a statement on the issue at the proposed public meeting on March 12.

However, the party high command has now called off the public meeting. Other engagements of Gandhi, like the airport inauguration at Hyderabad and opening of Prakasam irrigation canal in Rajahmundry and Devadula project in Warangal, will be held as schedule.

Unmoved by all these developments, chief minister Rajasekhara Reddy is still tight-lipped over the statehood issue. Terming the mass resignations by TRS as ?unfortunate?, Reddy said he was not in the way for separate statehood for Telangana. He appealed to the TRS leadership to review their resignation decision.

He added a decision on the separate state issue was left to Sonia Gandhi by both the parties. ??We both? Congress and TRS? have asked Sonia Gandhi to take a decision on the separate statehood to Telangana. We should give her enough time to announce her decision,?? Reddy said. He said his government believed in development of backward regions and proposed to constitute a separate backward region commission.

Reacting to Reddy?s development strategy, a senior Congress leader from Telangana, P Goverdhan Reddy, said, ??There is no dispute over the development programmes being taken up by the present Congress government in the Telangana region, but the people of this region (Telangana) are aspiring for self-governance. Hence, the development mantra will not work now.??

Meanwhile, all Opposition parties in the state have announced their reservations over land sale in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. They are opposed to the idea of funding the irrigation project with the land proceeds. How can the government use the funds raised by selling land in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts for the irrigation projects proposed in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, they question.

They have even warned realty companies participating in the auctions that the new government, after one year, would take back all the land that had been sold.