An all-party meeting chaired by Home Minister P Chidambaram to devise a mechanism and a road map to resolve the vexed Telangana issue began here today with TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, spearheading the movement for a separate state, and Chief Minister K Rosaiah attending it.
The meeting being held at the Home Ministry here is being attended by eight registered political parties in Andhra Pradesh -- Congress, TDP, TRS, Praja Rajyam, CPI(M), CPI, BJP and MIM.
As the representatives of the parties arrived to attend the conference, pro and anti-Telangana activists shouted slogans in support of their demands.
Besides, the TRS leader and the Chief Minister, others attending the meeting are actor-turned-politician and PRP leader Chiranjeevi and his associate C Ramachandraiah, K S Rao and Uttamkumar Reddy (both Cong) and Y Ramakrishna Du and R Prakash (both TDP).
Andhra Pradesh BJP unit chief Bandaru Dattareya and his colleague Hari Babu, B V Raghavallu and J Rangareddy (CPI-M), K Narayanan and Malesh (CPI) and Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi of MIM are also attending the deliberations.
The meeting comes a day after hectic consultations involving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues on the Telangana issue even as the TRS chief demanded an immediate Parliament law to facilitate formation of a separate state.
Singh had discussed the issue with senior colleagues Pranab Mukherjee (Finance), P Chidambaram (Home), A K Antony (Defence) and Veerappa Moily (Law).
Rosaiah, who had arrived here yesterday to participate in the meeting, had met Chidambaram and followed it up with another meeting with the Prime Minister. "I am not here to give any solution. I will attend the meeting as Chief Minister".
Chandrasekhar Rao has demanded that the Centre should follow up on its promise to create separate Telangana.
"The government has announced its policy on Telangana. It should follow it up with Constitutional process. A resolution should be moved in Parliament," he told reporters after meeting CPI general secretary A B Bardhan yesterday.
Congress and TDP, which are in a Catch-22 situation with deep divisions between their partymen from the three regions of the state, have done a delicate balancing act by nominating one person each from Telangana and coastal Andhra regions for the meet.
Huzurnagar MLA N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who hails from Telangana, and senior party MP from Eluru, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, representing coastal Andhra, are part of the Congress team at the meeting.
Former minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu (coastal Andhra region) and senior MLA Revuri Prakash Reddy (Telangana) are representing the TDP.
Chandrasekhar Rao yesterday said the Centre should follow up its announcement on Telangana with a Parliament resolution for the formation of a separate state.
He will be here for a week and meet leaders of various political parties to drum up support for Telangana.
Welcoming the registration of the third FIR, Aradhana, Ruchika's friend and the only witness to the molestation, hoped that "justice will be served in future. I am happy that the inquiry might now be marked to CBI.
"We had been waiting for this 16 years. We are happy that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has kept his promise," Aradhana said.
Last week, Hooda had indicated that a FIR on Ruchika's brother Ashu's complaint under Section 306 of the IPC (abetment to suicide) against Rathore may be registered.
"The FIR also indicates that Rathore's influence is diminishing and we are sure of appropriate justice ahead," she said.
Ruchika's father SC Girhotra and the Anand Prakash family has alleged that Rathore had used his clout at every step to fabricate and tamper facts in his favour.
"We want the investigating agencies to be completed in a time-bound manner. We are confident that justice will finally be done," said Anand Prakash, Aradhna's father.
Lawyer for the Girhotra family Pankaj Bharadwaj said the complaint under section 306 IPC was filed a couple of days ago and the Haryana Chief Minister had then said that the police was seeking legal opinion on it.
"I am happy that after considering everything they have got it registered. We had given them all the documents on the basis of which the legal machinery has started working," he said.
