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Jagan Reddy seeks Patnaik's support over Telangana

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IANS Bhubaneswar

YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Sunday met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here and sought his support for an undivided Andhra Pradesh.

"If it (the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh) is not stopped, it could happen to any state tomorrow. It will kill democracy," Reddy told reporters here.

The YSR Congress president, facing charges in cases relating to disproportionate assets, is out on bail.

He has been meeting the leaders of different political parties to build a national consensus against the formation of a separate Telangana state after getting permission from a special CBI court in Hyderabad.

"Let Andhra Pradesh not be a precedent for the divisive tactics of the party in power at the Centre," he told reporters.

 

After the meeting, which lasted about 15 minutes, Naveen Patnaik said the division of the state is a political, social, economic and emotional issue.

"In case of Andhra Pradesh, the people of the state should have been consulted and a consensus developed before any decision was taken. It should not be done for narrow political, electoral interests," he told reporters.

His meeting with the Odisha chief minister comes four days after he met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata.

Reddy has also met Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, and leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) in the past few days.

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First Published: Nov 24 2013 | 6:00 PM IST

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