Ulterior motives behind planned dharna at 10, Janpath

Minister for Higher Education D Sridhar Babu on Saturday suspected ulterior motives behind the Telugu Desam Telangana Forum members plans to stage a dharna in front of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi on October 25.

The proposed dharna is an attempt by the Forum to build pressure on the Congress president to introduce a Bill on separate Telangana in Parliament.

Talking to media persons at CLP Office, Mr Sridhar Babu said that the TDP leaders planned the dharna only to divert the attention of people as the TDP was on the verge of extinction in the state.

The Minister stated the TDP launched the dharna only to protect its survival in the state as it lost deposits in recent by-elections held for 12 Assembly segments in Telangana region.

The Minister told the TDP Telangana leaders to ask their leader to make his stand clear on separate statehood issue, before staging dharna before the residence of Sonia Gandhi.

He said the TDP leaders have no moral right to question Congress without making their stand clear on Telangana issue.

Mr Sridhar Babu said the Telangana people were not in a position to believe `cheap gimmicks’ of Telugu Desam leaders.

He said the government would stick to implementation of GO 610 in recruitments and do justice to all regions equally.