No hard stance on Telangana: Cong to AP leaders

The Congress top brass late Thursday night assured its agitating legislators of Andhra Pradesh that "no whip" will be issued to vote in favour of a separate statehood resolution, if and when it comes in the Assembly.

At a meeting with Congress MLAs from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told them, "don't worry. The party will not issue any whip to vote on the Telangana resolution. It will be left to your conscience to approve or reject the resolution."

A 'whip' in an Assembly or Parliament means the legislators have to follow the party line and can't vote against it. Otherwise, the legislator would lose the membership of the House on grounds of indiscipline.

The assurance came with a stern warning as well. When Ananth V Reddy, an anti-Telangana MP from Andhra Pradesh, raised his voice against the Centre's move in front of Mukherjee, the agitated finance minister snapped back and warned the legislators against resigning from the Assembly to mark their protests.

"If you people continue to resign from the House then be prepared to face fresh election," Mukherjee told them.

Hectic lobbying against Telangana continued as the group of MLAs met Home Minister P Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel apart from meeting Mukherjee. According to sources, they were assured in all the meetings that nothing will happen without an appropriate resolution from the AP Assembly.