New Delhi/Hyderabad, Oct 22 (IANS): Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh Tuesday said he did not discuss union territory status to Hyderabad with anybody.
He told reporters in the national capital that he did not say anything beyond what is there in the resolution of the Congress Working Committee. He was responding to queries about him discussing the issue with a central minister from Seemandhra (Raylaseema and coastal Andhra) region.
Terming Hyderabad a sensitive issue, he said the group of ministers was looking into it.
Digvijaya Singh, who is incharge of part affairs in Andhra Pradesh, said this after Union Minister of State for Finance J.D. Seelam said union territory status to Hyderabad could solve the row over bifurcation.
A section of Congress leaders of Seemandhra are demanding union territory status to Hyderabad to address the concerns of Seemandhra people about their future in the city.
On sending Telangana resolution to the state assembly, Digvijaya Singh said Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had promised to send him the entire schedule for formation of separate Telangana state.
On four Congress MPs from Seemandhra again submitting their resignations, he advised Seemandhra leaders to understand the ground realities and abide by the commitment they made to the leadership over Telangana issue.
Asked to comment on reports that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was planning to quit Congress and float a new party, Digvijaya said Kiran Reddy was a loyal Congress man and would not leave the party.
T. G. Venkatesh, a state minister from Seemandhra, Tuesday said if bifurcation became inevitable the chief minister would be under pressure to float a new party. He also predicted that many leaders would quit Congress if the central government went ahead with its decision to carve out separate Telangana state.
Another minister from Seemandhra G. Srinivasa Rao criticized Digvijaya Singh for creating confusion by making what he called contradictory statements. He said the party leader had lost credibility by going back on his own statements.
He hoped that the state would not be divided till 2014 elections. He said the situation would change after the assembly elections in five states.