New Delhi, April 30 (ANI): Five Congress Lok Sabha Members, hailing from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh,have commenced a 48-hour-long sit-down protest in front of the main entrance gate inside the Parliament premises.
They are demanding a separate state of Telangana.
The protest, which began at 11 a.m. on Monday, will end on Wednesday around the same time.
The MPs are Ponnam Prabhakar, G. Sukhender Reddy, G. Vivekananda, M Jagannatham and S. Rajaiah.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Joint Action Committee is holding a two-day rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi since yesterday in support of their demand for a separate state of Telangana.
On Monday, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress Party of betraying the people of Telangana.
"The fight for Telangana will continue because Congress the has betrayed the Telangana people. This demonstration is being held in Delhi and I think, this is the last warning for the Congress,"claimed Javadekar.
At the heart of the dispute is the status of Hyderabad, geographically within the proposed new state, but claimed by both sides.
Opponents of Telangana say the city was built into an economic powerhouse by investments from entrepreneurs from other regions of the state.
A protester, Amber Srinivas said they would fight against the government as it has failed to fulfil its promise.
The Congress had declared in December 2012 that the issue would be resolved within a month.
The demand for the separate state has seen violent protests and political power play, a hundreds killed between 1969 and 1972.
Supporters of Telangana state said that the interior region has been neglected in favour of Andhra Pradesh"s dominant coastal districts. Under the banner of a Joint Action Committee (JAC) they have named this march to New Delhi as "Sansad Yatra" or March to the Parliament to press for their demands.
The over four-decade-old demand for Telangana, which is to be carved out of the economically less developed part of Andhra Pradesh, gathered momentum after the Congress party led Central government accepted the demand in principle in 2009. (ANI)
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