Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which is spearheading the movement for a separate Telangana state, has kicked up a fresh controversy over the future status of Hyderabad.
Asserting that Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana state alone, TRS founder and Union Minister for Labour & Employment K Chandrasekhar Rao opposed demands for demarcating Hyderabad into a union territory, terming it an insidious move of "Andhra lobby" to complicate the issue.
Speaking at the party's fourth foundation day celebrations recently, Rao lashed out at the "Andhra power-brokers"-- leaders and people from coastal Andhra who have settled in and around Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana region-- for clamouring for union territory status for Hyderabad. "It is a deep-rooted conspiracy to deprive Telangana of its pre-eminent city," he said.
Panchayat Raj Minister J C Diwakar Reddy recently demanded that Hyderabad be converted into a union territory since the people of all the regions (particularly coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema) contributed to its phenomenal growth since the formation of Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956.