Congress Core Group discusses Telangana

News Today: The Congress top leadership is still not fully convinced that creating a new state of  Telangana is the best option for it. On Tuesday meeting of the Congress core Group at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence ended without any change in the situation even as reports form Hyderabad suggested that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had taken a stern line with striking government servants. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Singh on the consultations they had over the last few days with party leaders from both sides of the divide in Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana Congress leaders saw a pattern in the appeal. A senior leader claimed that the Chief Minister, having drawn flak for allegedly doing little to restore normality in the wake of the general strike, had gotten into an overdrive. In fact, Mr. Reddy and APCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana had gone all out to woo the RTC union leaders to end the strike. 

The Chief Minister had also begun consultations with his own party leaders and there was a perceptible change in the ground-level situation. The political JAC had deferred its three-day rail roko agitation while Director General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy and Police Commissioner A.K. Khan had gone round the city inspecting bus depots and railway stations. 

CM briefs Governor

The Chief Minister drove to Raj Bhavan late in the evening to brief Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan about the prevailing law and order situation and the efforts made by the APSRTC to put more buses into operation from Wednesday morning.

Parties play politics over eviction notice

Today News: The eviction notice served by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to thousands of families living in Tughlaqabad village since the 14th century is slowly snowballing into a political issue. While the ASI takes the plea that the villagers have “encroached upon” the government land, the two prominent parties of Delhi — the Congress and the BJP — with their eyes set on upcoming Municipal elections, have openly come out in support of the villagers. 

A delegation of Congress leaders — south Delhi Member of Parliament Ramesh Kumar and Chhatarpur MLA Balram Tanwar among others — met chief minister Sheila Dikshit to reflect the tension prevailing in the village. 

The move came just two days after a BJP delegation, led by leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, and area MLA Ramesh Bidhuri met Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna “to bring the matter to his notice”.

Yet another group of local leaders with west Delhi MP Mahabal Misra also met union culture minister Kumari Selja to request her to intervene into the matter. Senior political leaders accept that if municipal elections had not been around the corner, the issue would not have seen so much political frenzy. The issue has been in Court for quite some time now, but never managed to gather so much political support. 

“Tughlaqabad is among several Gujjar villages that are spread in south, south west and west Delhi. The elections in these areas are fought and won with the support of Gujjar votes. The political leaders know that lending their support to the cause would help them get some support and votes in the municipal elections next year,”said a senior Congress leader.


With the Congress facing dual problems of Corruption and inflation at the Centre, the local leaders are making efforts get some support at the grassroot level. On the other hand, Tughlaqabad is one of two Assembly segments in Delhi where BJP managed to get more votes than the Congress could in the 2009 Parliament elections.

Sonia returns to political routine

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is slowly getting back into her normal political routine of meeting people including political leaders although she is yet to make a public appearance after her successful surgery in the United States recently for an undisclosed ailment. 

Over the past few days, Sonia has met several party leaders including former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh besides party general secretaries including Digvijaya Singh and Janardan Dwivedi, sources said. 

On Friday, she met DMK leader TR Baalu, who conveyed his party leader M Karunanidhi’s wishes. “It is a great opportunity to receive the blessings of a senior leader like Karunanidhi,” Baalu later quoted Sonia as saying. He said no politics was discussed. 

Party leaders said Sonia’s gradual return to normal routine invalidates the talk that she would slowly withdraw from active politics to make way for son and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi. In fact, just over a week after her return from the US, she decided to attend a Central Election Committee meeting to decide candidates for the UP polls.