The senior Congress leaders of Telangana are not in a position to accept the proposal of JC Diwakar Reddy who stated that Rayalaseema would like to merge with Telangana if at all the state is going to be bifurcated.
Former minister R. Damodar Reddy criticizing Diwakar Reddy’s statement said "We had enough of these Rayalaseema leaders. How many more years would they like to cheat the people of Telangana? The Rayalaseema CMs like Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, YS Rajasekhar Reddy, Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy , Chandrababu Naidu etc., have cheated the people of Telangana enough. We do not want them to join us."
``The Rayalseema leaders want to join Telangana not out of any affection but to protect the illegally occupied lands in and around Hyderabad, ‘’ said another Congress leader Shankar Rao.