Centre resumes consultations on Telangana issue

The Centre today resumed consultations on the Telangana issue with senior ministers, eliciting the views of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi and Congress leader Renuka Chowdary.

The two leaders, both from Congress, met Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad and gave their opinion on the Telangana issue, which has virtually divided the state Congress on regional lines. After the meetings, Azad, the party General Secretary in-charge of the state, stressed on the need for taking the opinion of other political parties on the issue.

On Saturday, the ministerial team had elicited views of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, his deputy Damodar Rajanarasimha, five Union Ministers from the state, PCC chief Bosta Satyanarayana and former PCC President D Srinivas. "We have had a meeting with Mr Chiranjeevi, who was earlier heading a separate party and has merged his party with Congress party.

We have had discussion with him. He has given his opinion," Azad told reporters today. "Let us see how the meeting will progress. I had already said it is not so easy, matter is serious. We will have to take opinion from every stakeholder, so we have started the process of taking opinion," he said.

He said the Ministers also interacted with prominent Union Ministers from the state, the Chief Minister, the deputy chief minister and immediate past PCC president. "But apart from them, within Congress, it is required to take opinion from other people," he said.