HYDERABAD: A Telangana Congress meeting on Sunday turned raucous when former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury was asked to leave by a few leaders for her alleged anti-Telangana stand. Attempts by senior leaders to salvage the situation failed and a vexed Chowdhury left in high dudgeon.

Chowdhury faced the fury of Telangana leaders as she kept away from the separatism movement all these years although she belongs to Telangana and represented Khammam in the last Lok Sabha. She had ruffled Telangana leaders last month by associating herself with Seemandhra Congress leaders who met the A K Antony Committee to strengthen their case for a united AP.

“Renuka Chowdhury’s anti-Telangana stand is well-known. I don’t know why she came for the meeting when no one invited her. When thousands had committed suicide for the cause of Telangana, she had said the deaths were due to cancer,” said an angry Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar .

“While no one wanted her presence, we demanded an apology from her before attending the meeting. She neither apologized nor left although we asked her to leave. It was a shameless act, and we ignored her,” added the MP.

Choudhury was left red-faced when some members reminded her how she had once called Telangana activists “goonda elements” and demanded an apology.

Senior leaders, including panchayat raj minister K Jana Reddy, and former PCC president D Srinivas intervened and asked the strident leaders to calm down. Although they obliged, no one allowed Renuka to speak and she left the venue in a huff.

The T-leaders have decided to hold rallies this week to push the statehood issue forward and take a delegation to New Delhi. In the marathon meeting attended by the Congress ministers, MLAs, and MPs, a consensus on the action plan to take the Telangana issue forward was elusive.

Some said since the Telangana Rasthra Samiti would take advantage of the public meeting by the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee on September 29, T-Congress should take aggressive steps to counter it. Finally, the meeting resolved to take a delegation to New Delhi on September 22 with a request to the Centre to expedite the bifurcation and organize public rallies across Telangana between September 17 and 25.

Minister Ponnal Lakshmiah, who briefed the media about the deliberations, said the Telangana Congress leaders would organize a massive rally in October in Hyderabad.

