Lashing out at Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal for stating that the Centre would not announce Telangana State, Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar has said that he would ask the Chief Minister and the PCC Chief to control Lagadapati otherwise Telangana Congress leaders would directly raise of Lagadapati issue in the party meetings.

Speaking to the media at the CLP office, Ponnam said that while Lagadapati spoke only about Parakala result, but he failed to explain why YSRCP candidate had won in the Seemandhra region by a margin of over two lakh votes. “It was not correct for Lagadapati to say during his electioneering that the State may be bifurcated if YSRCP won the elections.

Questioning who had authorised Lagadapati to speak about Telangana issue, Ponnam said that Lagadapati was speaking shamelessly on Telangana issue while Telangana leaders never uttered a word against the Seemandhra. “Lagadapati was speaking shamelessly on Telangana issue even though the people of Telangana region spat on his face”, he said, he adding that Lagadapati had ran into the NIMS hospital like a “mentally deranged” person. He said that he would ask the Chief Minister and PCC Chief who told Lagadapati that a resolution on Samaikyandhra would be introduced in the Assembly. He also asked Lagadapati what he has done for victory of the Congress candidates in the bye-elections.

Former minister Jeevan Reddy said that the Congress party had lost deposits in the by-elections just because of Lagadapati’s statement that the State might be divided if Jagan’s party was voted. He pointed out that the TRS, TDP, YSRCP and BJP campaigned in Parakala that all of them were in favor of separate Telagnana State.

Jeevan Reddy said that the situation would have been different had AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad participated in the Parakala constituency and assure the voters that Congress was in favor of carving out Telangana State. He also said that Congress party would resurrect in the region if the Centre announced that Telangana State would be formed. He also opined that real intentions of various political parties would come out if the Centre convened an all-party meeting on Telangana.

The former minister said the Congress high command was also responsible for the party debacle in Parakala. The State party has to influence the high command on Telangana issue, he added. He also said that Telangana State would be created easily if all the ministers and MLAs from Telangana region stopped entering the Assembly.