BJP supports Telangana, says Swaraj

The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj declared the Bharatiya Janata Party's support for the Telanagan movement on Saturday. 

Addressing a mammoth rally of students organized by BJP's student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad at Nizam College Grounds in Hyderabad, Swaraj targeted both the ruling Congress and the main opposition Telugu Desam for their double speak on the Telangana issue. "The Congress leaders from Andhra region talk in support of united Andhra Pradesh and their Telangana leaders raise slogan of Jai Telangana. TDP's leaders from Andhra talk of united Andhra and Telangana leaders want separate Telangana. But there is no such dilemma in BJP's mind. We are clearly in favor of Telangana state".

Revisiting the history of the struggle of the region, she said that at the time of the merger of Telangana with Andhra region, the people had opposed it. "We had passed a resolution in support of Telangana state in 1957," she recalled. Reminding the Congress leadership specially party president Sonia Gandhi, of the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that the AP-Telangana merger was a merely a trial and if it failed, the people of Telangana could demand separate state, Sushma wanted the Congress and Sonia Gandhi to fulfill the promise of Nehru.

She said that support to Telangana does not mean that BJP was against Andhra. "We want that there should be two states of Telangana and Andhra and both should develop and prosper". She said that the Telangana region had suffered several injustices in the past 57 years. Giving an example she said that so far the Chief Ministers from Telangana region ruled the state only for 11 years.