Dharna for Telangana outside Parliament

The issue of separate Telangana was raised on the opening day of the Budget session on Monday with about a dozen Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh staging a dharna to protest absence of any mention of the issue in the President's address.

They protested in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament complex immediately after the President's speech to the joint sitting of Parliament.

Holding placards which read 'Jai Telengana and 'Jai Congress', they raised slogans like 'We want Telangana'.

The protesting MPs included K Keshav Rao, M Jagannath, Anjan Kumar Yadav among others.

Rao told media persons that the MPs were protesting because there was no mention of Telangana in the President's speech.

However, he said the Congress has already committed to a separate Telangana in its manifesto.

"It is Congress party's

CMP they would form a separate Telangana. It was in the Congress party's presidential address in 2004 that they would give a separate Telangana," he said.

Rao said the Congress has also adopted a resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly for a separate Telangana state.

"And it is Congress party's own Union Home Ministry which gave on December 9, 2009 a declaration which formally opted for Telangana. But there were few differences so we want to sort it out and we should sort it out," he said.

"We want Sonia Gandhi, our leader...she only would give it (Telangana)," he said while criticising parties, which were not serious about the issue.

Asked whether the party was embarrassed that their own MPs were protesting in the House against the government during the President's speech, he said, "Media can blame. They were putting themselves to shame".