After wrapping up its two-day long marathon discussions with political parties from the State, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana has summoned Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar to listen to his views on Thursday.
Before meeting Kiran at 8 p.m., the GoM will hold talks with officials of the railways, finance and law ministries. The call to Kiran comes exactly a week after the Congress coordination committee meeting where he was reportedly warned to either quit or fall in line. It is being seen as a final attempt by the powers-that-be to tame Kiran before sending the Telangana bill to the State Assembly.
Speculation is rife in political circles that there could be something more to the GoM’s call to the Chief Minister than meets the eye. As the GoM is said to be armed with reports from various quarters, including the State Government, on contentious issues such as the status of Hyderabad, sources said its members might take the trouble to dispel concerns repeatedly raised by the Chief Minister.
“Probably, not to give any chance to pick holes in its soon-to-be submitted report to the Centre, the GoM is trying to take all the stakeholders on board before winding up its consultations. During the meeting, the GoM may focus its attention on making Kiran toe the party line,” a senior Congress leader opined. As Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the members of the GoM, already told the CPI representatives during the all-party meeting that Kiran Reddy would have to adhere to the party stand on bifurcation, State Congress leaders expect the panel, which consists of seasoned politicos, might give “final counselling” to Kiran.
However, close aides of Kiran say he is going to reiterate his Samaikyandhra stance during the meeting and ask the GoM to explain how could they address the concerns of Seemandhra. “The Chief Minister will use the occasion to once again express his United Andhra stance. He will raise issues such as status of Hyderabad and sharing of river waters and ask the GoM to solve these issues before taking forward the Telangana process,” a close aide of Kiran told Express.
A top leader of the State Congress, while interacting with scribes here Wednesday, revealed that during the recently held PCC coordination panel meeting, Digvijaya Singh had told all the participants including Kiran that the T Bill would be sent to the Assembly by the end of this month. By divulging this, the senior Congress man tried to debunk the argument of CM’s camp that Kiran is still continuing his strident posture against his party leadership.
source: The New Indian Express
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