Hyderabad, June 6 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Sunday said his party was ready to support a bill for the formation of a separate Telangana state if the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government brings it in parliament.
Asserting that BJP was ’100 percent’ for separate statehood to the Telangana region, he told reporters here that the Congress party was playing with the sentiments of Telangana people.
‘If Congress party is sincere on Telangana issue, let them bring a bill in Parliament. BJP will support it,’ he said.
Gadkari, who arrived here on a three-day visit — the first since he took over as party chief, blamed the Congress for complicating the Telangana issue.
‘The Congress party declared that it will carve out a separate Telangana state but later backtracked. It is playing vote-bank politics on the issue,’ he alleged.
‘This is not the way to solve a problem. The Congress party is, in fact, creating more problems. The present confusion is because of its policies,’ Gadkari said.
He also said that the Srikrishna committee formed by the central government to look into the Telangana issue was a waste of time. ‘This is just a time-pass,’ he remarked.
The BJP president blamed the policies of the UPA government for the miseries of farmers in the country. He alleged that farmers’ suicides were continuing due to the ‘anti-farmer’ policies of the government.
He said that the BJP, for the last four months, has been demanding a halt to future and forward trading in essential commodities. ‘The government is exploiting farmers. Neither the farmers are getting remunerative prices nor the consumers are being benefited,’ he said.